MOMOLAND's Agency Refutes Daisy's Claims Regarding Their Conflict

Jan 08, 2020

MLD Entertainment has responded to KBS’s latest report regarding Daisy’s conflict with the agency.

On January 7, KBS revealed an interview with Daisy and her mother, who stated that “Finding Momoland” was rigged. In a further report, Daisy stated that she had been in conflict with her agency MLD Entertainment.

Below is MLD Entertainment’s full statement:

Hello, this is MLD Entertainment.

This is our statement regarding the biased reporting on “KBS News 9” on January 7.

Here is our response to the one-sided, outrageous suspicions presented through the broadcast.

1. “On the day the final lineup was announced for Mnet’s survival program ‘Finding Momoland’ (September 3, 2016), we made a secretive offer to Daisy, who was eliminated, along with the exact timing she would join MOMOLAND.”

We state that this is certainly not true. As we said in our previous statement, the plan was to terminate the contracts of trainees who were eliminated in the program’s final round. Daisy was eliminated based on the evaluations by the judges and viewers, and her trainee contract was supposed to be terminated. However, our CEO saw great potential in Daisy and suggested that she stay as a trainee, not as a part of the debut lineup. We first made our offer for [Daisy] to join MOMOLAND (who debuted on November 10, 2016) through a meeting in late November of 2016, and she signed an exclusive artist contract to join MOMOLAND in March 2017.

2. “[Daisy] expressed her desire to promote again last May but was not given any opportunities for eight months after this.”

For eight months starting last May, the period Daisy is referring to, MOMOLAND has not had any official domestic album promotions. After their fifth mini album “I’m So Hot” that was released on March 20, 2019, they could not have any promotions for approximately nine months besides their unit promotions. This is amidst a conflict with Daisy.

On February 14, 2019, Daisy’s dating news was reported by a media outlet. At the time, we checked with Daisy and confirmed the news. Three days after the report was released, Daisy’s mother stated to us regarding our response, “Take Daisy out of MOMOLAND. I will take her out before the next week ends.” We asked Daisy about this, and she was aware of it. Also, we asked her if she wanted to take part in promotions for the album that was being prepared for at the time, but we did not receive a clear response. Considering the situation, we suggested that she rest from promotions for a while.”

Across three instances on March 12, 2019; March 27, 2019; and July 30, 2019, Daisy’s mother sent the agency certifications of contents demanding an official apology and the termination of [Daisy’s] exclusive contract.

To amicably resolve the issue, we gave a response regarding the certification of contents on April 1, 2019 and told them, “We will terminate the exclusive contract without a penalty,” through a meeting with Daisy’s lawyer.

However, Daisy’s side rejected the agency’s offer and additionally made an unreasonable monetary demand. We could not agree to this, so on August 29, 2019, through a certification of contents, we rejected her request for the termination of the contract and explained the amount of the penalty in the case she wanted to terminate the contract.

In this way, certifications of contents regarding the issue of the termination of the exclusive contract were being sent back and forth between March 2018 and August 29, 2018. It is unreasonable to state that she suddenly “expressed her desire to promote again in May” in this kind of situation and timing, and starting last August, we could not contact Daisy at all because she one-sidedly refused to respond to our attempts to contact her.

3. “MLD demanded a penalty of 1.1 billion won (approximately $943,330) when Daisy’s side requested the termination of her contract.”

The penalty was an exact estimate based on the clauses on the Fair Trade Commission’s standard contract. We inform you that [the estimate] is based on the clauses on the standard contract that state, “if an artist breaks the contract, they have to compensate the agency for damages and pay a penalty.”

4. KBS stating, “MLD admitted to the suspicions that were raised.”

KBS’s reporter Lee Hwa Jin, who wrote the initial report, came to MLD Entertainment’s headquarters twice on October 31, 2019 and December 27, 2019 to investigate the related suspicions, and the agency never admitted to any of the claims at the time. We have recordings of the related evidence.

We inform you that through our legal team, we have made requests to the court and the Press Arbitration Commission for an official apology about KBS’s biased reporting and a prompt correction of the report.

Thank you.