On Oct 9th, Financial News reported that Judge Kim Jin-sung of the Seoul Central District Court ruled in favor of production company A in a lawsuit against Rebyte United and its CEO Kim. The court ordered the defendants to jointly pay the plaintiff 110 million KRW for the completion of the music video.
Rebyte is the parent company of BlockBerry Creative, which previously had a legal dispute with Chuu, and its CEO Kim is the wife of Lee Jong-myung, the former CEO of BlockBerry. Kim is also currently serving as the CEO of BlockBerry.
The lawsuit was reportedly decided in a default judgment, as Kim and Rebyte did not respond to A’s claims.
Typically, in civil lawsuits, if the defendant does not respond within 30 days or submits an answer admitting to the claims, the judge may issue a ruling without further hearings.
According to the judgment, BlockBerry signed a contract with A in September last year to produce the music video for the debut song “Voyage” of the newly launched girl group Geenius.
The agreed-upon price, including tax, was 110 million KRW. BlockBerry initially agreed to pay the amount in three installments: an advance of 25 million KRW, a mid-payment of 50 million KRW, and the remaining 25 million KRW.
A had also expanded its office and signed a sublease contract with BlockBerry, agreeing that the 25 million KRW advance would serve as an additional deposit for the sublease.
However, after BlockBerry fell into a state of capital erosion, then-CEO Lee Jong-myung asked A to transfer the music video production and sublease contracts to his company Rebyte.
Some of the payment (the mid-payment) was then made by Rebyte.
A claimed that despite delivering the final version of the music video in January, the remaining 35 million KRW, including the balance and VAT, was not paid.
Furthermore, after the sublease contract with BlockBerry expired in April, A did not receive the 75 million KRW deposit.
After repeated demands for payment were ignored, A filed a lawsuit.
The music video for Geenius’ debut song “Voyage” can be viewed on their official YouTube channel. As of 3:30 PM on Oct 9th, it has recorded about 500,000 views.
In addition to this civil case, former CEO Lee and CEO Kim are also under investigation for charges of fraud, breach of trust, evasion of compulsory execution…
