JG Star Refutes Im Chang Jung’s Claims Over Unpaid Concert Guarantees, Cites Contract Breaches
Mar 19, 2025
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JG Star said on the 19th that "Lim Chang-jung did not perform on the grounds of provisional registration, even though he was in a situation where he could fully repay it"Hiding his situation caused enormous damage to our company, and this fact was also distorted into a recent statement of position."
JGSTAR has been cooperating based on trust since it first signed a business agreement with Lim Chang-jung in 2020, but has suffered damage due to the breach of contract. Nevertheless, we worked with Lim Chang-jung for a long time and tried to prevent such disputes from occurring."
Regarding the national tour concert held from 2020 to 2021, "In March 2020, I signed a national tour concert contract with Lim Chang-jung. Despite the difficulty of proceeding with the performance due to COVID-19, the Company paid 1.48 billion won in advance six times until November 2021 based on trust," he explained first.
"However, in November 2021, Lim Chang-jung was confirmed to have COVID-19 in violation of quarantine rules.""The company, which was in charge of Lim Chang-jung's overall business, including not only performances but also public relations, decided to inevitably postpone the national tour concert in order to manage risk."
"We could have claimed damages for reasons attributable to the performers, but the company focused on resolving the situation and took all losses, including a penalty for cancellation of the rental and a penalty for prohibiting one-year rental."In response, Lim Chang-jung also expressed his gratitude for our decision. At the same time, he first expressed his intention to provide his concert rights for the rest of his life and made an oral agreement."
In this regard, Lim Chang-jung recently claimed that the non-return guarantee of the controversy includes not only the concert guarantee that failed to proceed due to the incident at the time, but also the cost of compensating for damages (cancellation fees, various promotional expenses), delayed interest, and future expected profits, and the cost of producing a remake album (deducting repayment when the album is released).
In response, JG Star signed a project music singing contract ahead of the national tour concert 'Multiverse' in 2022 regarding the remake album. The main content was the release of Lim Chang-jung's remake album, which was promoted with significance to the scarcity that he rarely covered other singers' songs."
"The release of the remake album was also intended to show the audience a new side of Lim Chang-jung during the 2023 tour."The distribution contract was completed on April 6, 2023, and the company spent 115 million won on production, including singing fees, rewriting agreements, arrangements, and sessions. Lim Chang-jung was paid about 75 million won in singing fees on two occasions until April 20"
It also detailed the amount of damage that Lim Chang-jung's activities became difficult due to the controversy over stock price manipulation in April 2023. JG-STAR wrote "The Company and Lim Chang-jung signed an agreement on the amount of damages related to the performance and remake album on May 13, 2023.", he said, adding that the total amount, including taxes such as performances, project albums, promotional fees, and provisional registration fees, was 1,129.04 million won.
In particular, in response to Lim Chang-jung's claim that the company's office building was temporarily registered and transferred to the company "At that time, Lim Chang-jung was under pressure not only from the company's losses but also from various businesses and distributors such as F&B." Accordingly, the company conducted provisional registration after agreeing with Lim Chang-jung to secure the bond as collateral" he said.
In response to Lim Chang-jung's position that 'if the building is sold, it will remain sufficiently repaid the damage', he refuted, saying, "Contrary to Lim Chang-jung's explanation, the building had a very high ratio of bank loans, and contrary to Lim Chang-jung's argument, the market price was not a certain situation in which the company's damage could be guaranteed even if the building was sold.'
"Nevertheless, the Company approved this based on the trust relationship with Lim Chang-jung at the time.""If the company actually wanted to recover the damage through the building, it would have taken active measures such as receiving monthly rent from Lim Chang-jung, who has already auctioned or continues to use the building afterwards."" said JG Star.
In addition, Lim Chang-jung said, "I tried to take maximum responsibility for the cost of damage." Lim Chang-jung stopped contacting the company from the end of 2024. The Company is returning the down payment by taking out loans to protect trust with investors and partners at a time when the remaining performances were canceled due to the controversy over 'stock price manipulation'. We tried to resolve the situation at the expense of the financial burden, but as communication with Lim Chang-jung was cut off, normal consultation became difficult."
Then, in the second half of last year, Lim Chang-jung received a large guarantee from the current performance agency, Mbox, and heard directly from Mbox that it would hold a performance. Lim Chang-jung entrusted the company to sell his copyright to us, but he made billions of won in profits by selling it to other companies without any consultation, and even hid this fact from us. As such, Lim Chang-jung did not perform despite having sufficient funds to repay" criticized.
Jay-Z Star, who tried to communicate with Lim Chang-jung's wife, Seo Hayan, but this was also not smooth, lied to another Lim Chang-jung official about the reimbursement plan, saying that the proceeds from copyright sales were used to pay off the 2 billion advance distribution payments. I also responded by saying, 'I don't know about it.'"
In addition, Lim Chang-jung also said "Im Chang-jung has expressed his intention to talk to us in person, but he did not show up at the meeting place, and has not been able to contact him since then."
Accordingly, JG Star will go through legal procedures related to the controversy. JG Star said "After Lim Chang-jung's promise of reimbursement, the company's profits so far are about KRW 2.1 billion in copyright ownership and about KRW 1.4 billion in concert guarantee, a total of about KRW 3.5 billion. In the meantime, Lim Chang-jung has not performed it on the grounds of provisional registration, even though it is in a situation where it can be fully reimbursed", he pointed out.
In the meantime, "Hiding his situation caused enormous damage to our company, and even distorted this fact through recent statements."We have begun legal proceedings for the performance of our debt to prevent further unilateral damage, and we will respond actively until we receive fair compensation."
The following is the full text of JG Star's entry.
Hello, I'm JG-STAR.
I'm sending you a statement about Lim Chang-jung.
Before I tell you, it may be misunderstood that Lim Chang-jung did his best to reimburse only from the current position of Mbox. However, it is revealed that the dispute with us is more than just a guarantee issue.
Since we first signed a business agreement with Lim Chang-jung in 2020, we have been cooperating based on trust, but we have suffered damage due to the contract failure problem. Nevertheless, we worked with Lim Chang-jung for a long time and tried to prevent disputes like this from occurring.
Lim Chang-jung is also well aware of this fact. However, when the dispute over guarantee was reported in the media, we saw him responding as 'groundless' and reviewed the response, including legal action.
▶About the 2020-2021 national tour concert
In March 2020, we signed a national tour concert contract with Lim Chang-jung. Despite the difficulty of proceeding with the performance due to COVID-19, the company paid 1.48 billion won in advance six times until November 2021 based on trust. However, in November 2021, Lim Chang-jung was confirmed to have COVID-19 in violation of quarantine rules.
The company, which was in charge of Lim Chang-jung's overall business, including not only performances but also publicity, decided to inevitably postpone the national tour concert in order to manage risk. We could have claimed damages for reasons attributable to the performers, but we focused on resolving the situation and took all the losses, including a cancellation penalty and a one-year no-rental penalty. In response, Lim Chang-jung also expressed her gratitude for our decision. At the same time, he first expressed his intention to provide his concert rights for the rest of his life and made an oral agreement.
The postponed national tour concert was held under the title of 「Multiverse」 in 2022, and 16 out of 28 concerts were successfully completed, starting with Jeonju performance on June 18 and Busan performance on December 31. In particular, the performance has achieved results, attracting more than four times the audience compared to the national tour IMCHANGJUNG conducted between 2018 and 2019. As a result, the remaining 12th performance was decided to proceed in 2023 and preparations began in earnest, but Lim Chang-jung expressed her desire to break the verbal agreement, saying she wanted to proceed with the performance with a new investor.
▶Regarding the remake album
In 2022, the company and Lim Chang-jung signed a project music singing contract ahead of the national tour concert 'Multiverse'. The main content was the release of Lim Chang-jung's remake album, which was promoted with significance to the scarcity that he rarely covered other singers' songs. The release of the remake album was also intended to show audiences a new side of Lim Chang-jung on the 2023 tour.
On April 6, 2023, the distribution contract was completed, and the company spent 115 million won on production, including singing fees, rewriting agreements, arrangements, and sessions. Lim Chang-jung was paid about 75 million won in singing fees on two occasions until April 20.
▶ Details of the agreement on the amount of damage due to the controversy over 'stock price manipulation'
Lim Chang-jung's normal activities became difficult due to the controversy over stock price manipulation that erupted on April 25, 2023. Accordingly, the company and Lim Chang-jung wrote an agreement on the damages related to the performance and remake album on May 13, 2023. The agreement according to the maximum letter is as follows.
1. a performance
-Performance guarantee: 720,000,000
-Rent: 77,800,000
-Loss for cancellation of local performances: 80,000,000
2. Project album
-Singer fee: 75,000,000,000
-Agree to amend: 7,500,000
-Song arrangement and production: 32,500,000
3. promotional expenses
-Media: 25,000,000 (artists belonging to Lim Chang-jung, Seo White, etc.)
4. a provisional registration fee
-Fee: 86,000,000
=Total amount 1,026,400,000
=1,129,040,000 with VAT
As can be seen from the contents, the company set only actual expenses such as guarantee, rental fee, and progress cost for album production as damages in consideration of Lim Chang-jung's situation at the time. Delayed interest or future expected profits claimed by Lim Chang-jung on the 14th were not included in the amount at the time.
▶ Related to the transfer of registration of the office building
In addition, Lim Chang-jung said in the last statement that the company-owned office building has been temporarily registered and transferred to the company. At that time, Lim Chang-jung was under pressure not only from the company's losses but also from various businesses and distributors such as F&B. Accordingly, the company proceeded with provisional registration after agreeing with Lim Chang-jung to secure the bond as collateral.
Lim Chang-jung explained that the company will proceed with the registration process for the office building to the company and that `if the company is sold, it will remain to pay back the damages sufficiently.' Contrary to Lim Chang-jung's explanation, the building had a very high ratio of bank loans, and contrary to Lim Chang-jung's argument, the market price was not a certain situation where the company's damage could be guaranteed even if the building was sold.
Nevertheless, we approved this based on our trust relationship with Lim Chang-jung at the time. In fact, if the company wanted to recover the damage through the building, it would have taken active measures, such as receiving monthly rent from Lim Chang-jung, who has already auctioned or continues to use the building afterwards.
In fact, Lim Chang-jung deposited some 200 million won of the damage-related settlement on November 16, 23. Looking at this, we understand the situation of Lim Chang-jung, who lost a lot due to the controversy over 'stock price manipulation', and decided to help him return to the end even if he suffered damage.
However, no additional reimbursement has been made since then, and communication with Lim Chang-jung has not been smooth.
▶ Related to non-payment of Lim Chang-jung
On the 14th, Lim Chang-jung said in a statement that they have been doing their best to take maximum responsibility for the cost of damage.
The company actively helped restore Lim Chang-jung's image even after the controversy over 'stock price manipulation'. We also provided free responses to the controversy over eating and running at the acting academy and the closure of the hair salon.
However, Lim Chang-jung has stopped contacting us since the end of 2024. The Company is returning the down payment with loans to protect trust with investors and partners at a time when the remaining performances were canceled due to the controversy over 'stock price manipulation'. We tried to resolve the situation by taking the financial burden, but as communication with Lim Chang-jung was cut off, normal consultation became difficult.
On top of that, I heard directly from Mbox that Lim Chang-jung will hold a performance in the second half of last year with a large guarantee from Mbox, the current performance agency. In addition, Lim Chang-jung entrusted us with selling his copyright to the company, but he made billions of won in profits by selling it to other companies without any consultation, and even hid this fact from us. As such, Lim Chang-jung did not perform despite having enough funds to repay.
At that time, I also tried to discuss a solution with CEO Seo White, but communication did not go smoothly. When asked about the reimbursement plan, another official from Lim Chang-jung lied, saying, `The profits from copyright sales were used to pay off all 2 billion advance payments in distribution.' I don't know what I don't know.
In response, Lim Chang-jung has expressed his intention to talk to us in person, but he did not show up at the meeting place, and he has not been able to contact us since then. I would like to ask you again if Lim Chang-jung really tried her best to pay off the debt.
It is true that Embox and our company have discussed the reimbursement plan for several months until recently. In the process, we also expressed our opinion on legal delayed interest for the first time to Lim Chang-jung, who abandoned his trust. In response, Embox changed its words rather than discussing realistic repayment plans, and eventually proposed a limited payment on the condition of the temporary cancellation of registration. It was a difficult condition to accept, but we even accepted it. However, the last position I heard from Embox was 'It is difficult to repay." That's what it was saying.
▶Conclusion and Company's response policy
After Lim Chang-jung's promise of reimbursement, the company's profits so far are about 2.1 billion won in copyright ownership, 1.4 billion won in concert guarantees, a total of about 3.5 billion won. In the meantime, Lim Chang-jung has not performed it on the grounds of provisional registration, even though he is in a situation where he can fully repay it. Rather, it caused enormous damage to our company by hiding its situation, and even distorted this fact through a recent position.
We have initiated legal proceedings for debt fulfillment to prevent further unilateral damage and will respond actively until we receive due compensation.
Thank you.
rightlight@sportschosun.com
