Seoul signs 370-million-won contract with company run by ‘honorary mayor’ Shin Hyun-joon’s wife; favoritism allegations come under scrutiny

[Financial News] Allegations of favoritism have been raised over Seoul Metropolitan Government’s signing of a promotional video production contract worth around 370 million won with a company run by the spouse of actor Shin Hyun-joon, whom the city appointed as an honorary mayor. Critics also said the city did not separately review the company’s production record during the contract process.
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Council on the 5th, Yoon Sun-hee, a member of its Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea representing Jongno 1, questioned the propriety of promotional video production contracts with companies connected to honorary mayors and public relations ambassadors during the previous day’s administrative audit of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Director General for Public Relations Planning.
According to Councilmember Yoon, Jace & River, whose CEO is Shin Hyun-joon’s spouse, signed a contract to produce Seoul Metropolitan Government YouTube videos featuring Shin. The total contract value is 375.65 million won.
Shin Hyun-joon was appointed an honorary mayor of Seoul last September along with actor Jung Joon-ho and volleyball player Kim Yeon-koung. An honorary mayor is an unpaid honorary position appointed by the Seoul Metropolitan Government to reflect citizens’ voices in city administration.
Councilmember Yoon pointed out that Jace & River had been in the business of designing bags, clothing and accessories, and won a contract to produce videos for Seoul after adding film production and advertising and promotional video production to its corporate registration last March.
Yoon criticized the arrangement, saying, “Only the business categories were added to the company’s registration; its original business is fashion and bags. It’s hard to understand how it could win a Seoul contract just because its CEO is the spouse of an honorary mayor. Do you think it’s appropriate for a bag company to win public-sector video contracts worth hundreds of millions of won?”
She continued, “Each video costs more than 50 million won, and for what is currently visible alone, about 400 million won in taxpayer money has gone toward sole-source contracts without even checking the company’s track record. A reasonable suspicion is that Shin is making a show of serving as an unpaid honorary mayor out front while the city looks after his family corporation behind the scenes.”
Whether the company’s video production record had been reviewed at the time of the contract also became an issue. Asked about this, Kim Hyung-rae, the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Director General for Public Relations Planning, explained, “We don’t award sole-source contracts on the basis of a review of a company’s track record.”
Asked whether officials had confirmed that the company produced the videos itself or subcontracted the work, he said, “I’m not aware of the detailed circumstances of the contracts,” adding, “They would, of course, have been handled in accordance with the regulations.”
Jace & River said, “We had already produced a number of branded content projects with the Seoul Metropolitan Government before Shin was appointed an honorary mayor of Seoul. Producing content related to Seoul was not a new business that began after his appointment.”
Meanwhile, a contract with a company headed by Shuka (real name Jeon Seok-jae), an economics YouTuber and Seoul Metropolitan Government public relations ambassador, also came under scrutiny.
Councilmember Yoon said Shuka Friends produced 21 promotional videos for the Seoul Metropolitan Government from January last year through September this year for a total of 406.56 million won.
Yoon criticized the arrangement, saying, “If the city puts someone forward as an unpaid honorary public relations ambassador while, behind the scenes, giving more than 400 million won in production fees to a company headed by that ambassador, that would amount to indirect favoritism.”
Yoon urged the Seoul Metropolitan Government to thoroughly review and correct contracting practices across all its agencies to ensure that work is never again steered to family corporations using taxpayers’ money under the cover of honorary positions.
[email protected] Ahn Ga-eul Reporter