Shin Hyun Joon To Take Legal Action After Former Manager Reveals Text Messages

Jul 13, 2020

Shin Hyun Joon’s agency HJ Film has released another statement regarding claims of mistreatment made by Shin Hyun Joon’s former manager.

Previously, former manager Kim Gwang Seob claimed that Shin Hyun Joon had mistreated him for 13 years, which included instances of him being underpaid, rudely spoken to, forced to take care of Shin Hyun Joon’s mother, and refused a formal contract.

On July 13, Kim Gwang Seob revealed a series of text messages sent between him and Shin Hyun Joon.

In 2012, they discussed a fan meeting in Japan over text messages. Shin Hyun Joon requested that Kim Gwang Seob look into setting up the fan meeting and brought up the topic of how they would distribute the income. Kim Gwang Seob responded, “How much do I get?” To this, Shin Hyun Joon replied, “We’ll see how you do.”

In another series of messages regarding his work, Shin Hyun Joon asked Kim Gwang Seob, “Any good news?” in nine identical messages over a duration of 10 minutes. When Kim Gwang Seob didn’t reply, Shin Hyun Joon sent multiple messages reading, “Why aren’t you contacting me?” He also sent, “If I land this, I’ll pay you right away,” and, “Hurry up and contact JTBC.” Shin Hyun Joon continued to send at least six messages in the space of one minute that all read, “How did it go??”

A representative from Shin Hyun Joon’s agency revealed to Xportsnews, “It is a ridiculous false claim. Shin Hyun Joon said, ‘If there are any hard feelings or grievances that we haven’t resolved, we could have met in person and talked about it, so that’s a shame.'” They added that Shin Hyun Joon and Kim Gwang Seob were longtime friends who got along without formalities.

On July 13, Shin Hyun Joon’s agency released a statement in which they revealed that they will be taking legal action. The full statement reads:

This is Shin Hyun Joon’s agency, HJ Film.

First, we are sorry for causing concern in various ways.

It has taken us time to comprehend the truth and collect evidence for something that happened with Kim Gwang Seob 10 years ago.

We cannot help but deal with this very cautiously and passively ahead of the public reveal of actor Shin Hyun Joon’s family so that we do not harm the actor’s family as well as those who are working hard to create the show [KBS’s “The Return of Superman”].

If the text messages that were revealed in the article today were maliciously selected — from a casual conversation that wouldn’t become a problem between close personal contacts — and edited to dishonestly explain the situation at the time, it will be difficult for us to remain patient.

First off, we think we must explain the relationship between Kim Gwang Seob and Shin Hyun Joon. It is true that Kim Gwang Seob started off as a friend and became a manager, working as one for the first several years. However, for the last five years, starting from 2010, Kim Gwang Seob was the CEO of the entertainment agency and employed managers of celebrities. During that time, Shin Hyun Joon’s managers didn’t change 20 times, as he claims. Regarding the several times that they did change, it was due to Kim Gwang Seob’s unpaid wages and delayed payments to multiple employees (managers). We will submit the evidence.

For the last 6 years, Kim Gwang Seob and Shin Hyun Joon were outwardly the CEO of an agency and the agency’s celebrity, but Shin Hyun Joon simply let Star Brothers Entertainment list him as an affiliated celebrity, wanting to help out a friend who started their own company.

Shin Hyun Joon and Kim Gwang Seob shared the mindset that, based on faith between the two, Kim Gwang Seob would be Shin Hyun Joon’s agent, taking care of Shin Hyun Joon’s work on a project-by-project basis. The fees were different for each project. Kim Gwang Seob was at one point a credit delinquent, and he took care of money transactions with cash.

Kim Gwang Seob’s claim that he was offered a tenth of the earnings is false, and it doesn’t say this in the contract, nor have we ever promised this verbally. If he was actually offered a tenth of the earnings, the question he asked from the text messages, which he revealed himself, saying, “How much do I get?” shouldn’t exist.

Seeing Kim Gwang Seob not working hard to run the company and becoming indulged in entertainment and unreasonable business attempts, Shin Hyun Joon felt regretful and was there to urge him, even to get angry with him, and at times, he would encourage him.

As you can see through the text messages he revealed himself, the messages only prove how late Kim Gwang Seob is to respond and how hard it is to contact him. While everyone is waiting for work, is it a crime to ask him to hurry up and figure things out? Is that an abuse of power?

Through this incident, HJ Film has met with many of Kim Gwang Seob’s victims and gathered many pieces of evidence.

HJ Film and Shin Hyun Joon will take action with the truth, not with lies. After explaining this to everyone, you will see how much Shin Hyun Joon is hurting on the inside because of his friend.

If Shin Hyun Joon has anything to apologize for, he feels sorry and extremely regretful for believing someone like Kim Gwang Seob to be his friend and working together with him.

There have been many incidents lately, and the public is feeling swamped. We are truly sorry for adding to everyone’s sense of fatigue through this ridiculous and disgraceful happening between the two people.

We will respond to and demand Kim Gwang Seob take legal responsibility for the false information that he is providing, as well as his actions to spread the information.

HJ Film