Actress Lee Sun Bin is in conflict with her agency, Well Made Star Ent. On May 21, Park Chun Hyuk, the law...
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Actress Lee Sun Bin is in conflict with her agency, Well Made Star Ent.
On May 21, Park Chun Hyuk, the lawyer who represents Well Made Star Ent, released an official statement.
He stated, “Through a legal representative, the agency requested that Lee Sun Bin rectify the violations of her exclusive contract and comply with the terms as soon as possible. After several media outlets inquired about the issue, we have decided to release a formal statement.”
The first part of the statement states that the exclusive contract between Well Made Star Ent and Lee Sun Bin was signed in 2016 and that the contract period has not yet expired. The contract gave the agency exclusive management rights to Lee Sun Bin’s entertainment industry activities and Lee Sun Bin does not have the right to promote or negotiate appearances through a third party without the agency’s prior approval.
The second part of the statement states that in September 2018, Lee Sun Bin sent the agency a one-sided notice of contract termination. The statement continues, “Since then, she has violated her exclusive contract by continuing her entertainment industry activities independently. Lee Sun Bin has also damaged the reputation of the company and the company’s CEO by filing a false lawsuit. (The company received a verdict of ‘not guilty’ in the lawsuit in question.)”
The third part of the statement reads, “We requested that Lee Sun Bin quickly rectify the severe violations of her exclusive contract and sent her the following certification of contents.” The certification of contents asks Lee Sun Bin to disclose the details of her entertainment activities from September 2018 to the present, as well as the revenues from those activities, within 14 days of receiving the notice.
The agency also asks that Lee Sun Bin disclose all the productions in which she has been cast (including the upcoming OCN drama ‘Team Bulldog: Off-duty Investigation’) as well as the productions for which she is in negotiations. In addition, she must notify those parties that negotiations will take place through the agency in future.
The fourth part of the statement states that the company will take legal action if Lee Sun Bin does not comply within the stipulated timeframe.
Lee Sun Bin’s legal representative issued a response to the statement and denied the claims made therein.
The response stated, "On August 31, 2018, Lee Sun Bin sent a certification of contents to her agency because the agency lacked transparency regarding expenses. She requested objective billing information as well as evidence material to back it up, but the agency rejected the request."
“According to the exclusive contract, the agency must utilize their management rights to maximize Lee Sun Bin’s talent and skill. They must provide her the opportunity to prepare physically and mentally as well as explain in advance the contents of her contract and schedule. However, when Lee Sun Bin’s manager pointed out problems like the lack of transparency in its accounting and signing up for offers without prior explanation, the company unilaterally demoted the manager and reduced his pay. This was interfering with Lee Sun Bin’s entertainment industry activities.”
The response goes on to state that the agency did not respond to Lee Sun Bin’s certification of contents within 14 days, as stipulated in the exclusive contract. Following the procedure set out in the exclusive contract, Lee Sun Bin issued a notice that her contract had been terminated on September 21, 2018. For a year and eight months, the company did not issue a formal rebuttal to the contract termination. The company sent no support for Lee Sun Bin’s entertainment activities and acknowledged the termination.
The response continues, "Furthermore, the agency CEO sued Lee Sun Bin and claimed that she had forged counterfeit papers. The CEO claimed that they had never signed an exclusive contract with her. The release of this new statement proves the inconsistency of his behavior. Lee Sun Bin was found not guilty in the fraud lawsuit he filed against her."
"Despite all this, the company continues to allege that Lee Sun Bin violated her exclusive contract. In requesting the details of the revenue she made between September 2018 and now, we can only see this as an attempt to lower Lee Sun Bin’s reputation. Moreover, part of the lawsuit that Lee Sun Bin filed against the agency CEO addresses the agency’s violation of their contract obligations. It is currently being investigated by prosecutors, so we cannot say that the case is over. As the CEO had also filed a lawsuit against Lee Sun Bin, the mutual trust relationship has already been broken. The verdict of the lawsuit does not change the fact that the contract has already been terminated."
“We request that the agency no longer take action that defames Lee Sun Bin’s reputation. If this behavior is not stopped, we warn that we will take legal action.”
