After the controversy due to the disputes between HYBE Corporation and ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin, the South Korean government has ordered the ministry of culture, sports, and tourism to open an investigation against the record label behind BTS due to the alleged practice of illegal manipulation of the music chart known as sajaegi in 2017.
The reports indicate that HYBE Labels would have manipulated BTS’ charts while promoting an album in 2015, and that a few years later it was discovered by a man named Lee, who, with three other people, began to extort the agency to not make the legal complaint effective, to which the executives of the label would have agreed to prevent the inmoral practices from coming to light.
On May 4th, one of the ministries of the South Korean government said that he received a petition to investigate the extortion of Lee and the reason why the agency behind BTS decided to pay those men if they do not have anything to hide. The case will be transferred to the Korean Creative Content Agency Kocca, which is the state in charge of all the genres of Korean popular culture.
The Kocca affirmed that they will undertake an exhaustive investigation and will demand a response from HYBE. In addition, the Ministry of Culture also received a petition requesting that the recognition of the Order of Cultural Merit granted to the boy group BTS by the same minister be revoked if the accusations turn out to be true.