Cha Ga-won Faces Detention Review on Fraud Allegations Involving 30 Billion Won

[Financial News] Cha Ga-won, head of the entertainment agency ONE HUNDRED label, who is accused of fraud involving 30 billion won, is set to face a detention review.
According to the legal community on the 29th, Judge Boo Dong-sik of the Seoul Central District Court will hold a pretrial detention hearing for Cha, who is accused of fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, on the 3rd of next month.
The warrant stems from a request filed by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Metropolitan Investigation Unit Financial Crime Investigation Team on the 22nd, which was the third such request, and the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office's subsequent filing.
Cha is accused of proposing a business using the intellectual property rights of artists under his entertainment agency, signing a contract with Nomus, and receiving an advance payment of 24.2 billion won, while failing to carry out the project in practice.
Police suspect that Cha concealed from Nomus the fact that a preexisting contract with another company was not likely to expire soon, entered into a double contract, and was not even prepared to carry out the business.
Police had previously requested arrest warrants for Cha twice last month, but prosecutors returned them and asked for supplementary investigations.
During the third warrant request, additional investigations were carried out through consultations between prosecutors and police, including account tracing and analysis of contractual relationships involving Cha.
Through those efforts, investigators are said to have found signs that Cha launched the entertainment agency while carrying large debts and later used a contract-splitting scheme to roll over those obligations.
Cha's side said, "This case does not constitute fraud either factually or legally, and there are many points of dispute, so we plan to explain to the court that there is no sufficient reason for detention."
[email protected] Jung Kyung-soo Reporter