Lee Gyu Tae, the president of Ilkwang Group which is the company that owns Polaris Entertainment, was arrested under suspicion of fraud today. This is relevant news to K-pop not only because it’s Polaris, but because it’s the same executive that is involved in a contract dispute/sexual harassment case with Clara.
Ilkwang Group is a large corporation that manufactures training simulation programs for the Korean military, airforce, and navy. However, Ilkwang Group is also owns companies in multiple other businesses, including that of K-pop; Ilkwang Group owns Polaris Entertainment. President Lee Gyu Tae, is in fact the same Polaris Entertainment executive whom Korean celebrity Clara very publicly accused of sexual harrassment recently.
At the 10 locations investigated today, officials confiscated internal documents, accounting ledgers, and hard disks containing proof that Ilkwang Group has — in layman’s terms — ripped off the Korean government big time by over-charging them drastically for their weapons training and simulation products.
Following all this drama, Polaris has been temporarily shut down.
This doesn’t appear to have much to do with Clara in terms of the sexual harassment case, but it does make you wonder about the contractual stuff that is being disputed.