Cha Ga-won, head of the entertainment agency OneHundred Label, who faces fraud charges totaling about 30 billion won, was handed over to prosecutors in custody.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Major Crime Unit's Financial Crime Investigation Division on the 7th referred Cha to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in custody on suspicion of fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes. Cha is suspected of proposing a business using the intellectual property (IP) of entertainers affiliated with the entertainment agency Cha runs to Knowmerce, signing a contract, receiving 24.2 billion won in advance payments, and then failing to carry out the actual business.
Police also determined that although a contract Cha had previously signed with another company did not appear to be ending, Cha concealed this from Knowmerce and signed a duplicate contract, and was not prepared to carry out the business. In addition, police found indications that Cha started the business while carrying a large amount of debt and rolled over the debt by splitting contracts.
Police judged that Cha's detention was necessary and applied for an arrest warrant twice, but prosecutors sent it back, requesting supplementary investigation. After additional investigations, including tracing Cha's accounts and analyzing contractual relationships in consultation with prosecutors, an arrest warrant was sought on the 28th of last month.
The Seoul Central District Court on the 3rd of this month held a pre-arrest suspect questioning (substantive warrant review) for Cha and issued the warrant, saying there were concerns about destruction of evidence.