HYBE is currently confirming its position on allegations of the rumors surrounding alleged leaked BTS concept plagiarism and cult association.
On the 28th of April, various allegations surrounding HYBE and BTS have been flooding online communities. In response to questions from DongA.com about whether they will make a statement, HYBE stated that they will “look into the matter.”
The following are the suspicions that have arisen: [these are not confirmed, mere allegations]
First, the allegations of leaked court rulings and concept plagiarism are related to The Most Beautiful Moment in Life (2015), which is the foundation and core of BTS’s worldview. BTS reached No. 1 on the music charts with the title track “I NEED U” from their album The Most Beautiful Moment in Life. It was a turning point for BTS, as they rose rapidly compared to their previous works and became the “hottest trend.”
Online, there are circulating partial court rulings from 2017 regarding group BTS’s agency being prosecuted for illegal marketing practices. According to reports at the time, a person known as “A” was prosecuted on charges of extortion, allegedly threatening the agency officials by saying, “I have evidence of illegal marketing. If you don’t pay, I will expose the related information to the media.” “A” was accused of extorting a total of KRW 57 million in eight instances. “A” was once known as a person involved in BTS’s illegal marketing practices. Judge Seong Bo-gi, the head of Seoul Central District Court’s Criminal 3 Division, explained the reason for imposing a one-year prison sentence, stating, “A’s crimes are very bad as he exploited the secret information he learned about his business partner for personal gain. However, considering that the victim also had wrongdoing by resorting to illegal marketing and providing grounds for extortion, it was taken into account.” However, the publicly available court ruling explicitly states that the phrase “exploiting counterfeit marketing to embezzle money” is included. At the time, BTS’s side refuted A’s claims, stating that it was a unilateral and conventional online viral marketing.
Furthermore, screenshots of a post titled “BTS Illegal Music Streaming? I am the culprit” from a petitioner who claimed to be A are circulating on the Blue House’s online petition board. The author claimed to have promised “illegal music streaming of BTS’s songs” and threatened the agency but received no compensation, leading to a one-year prison sentence. They said, “The agency officially announced that it was just simple viral marketing, but I couldn’t write about it to the press, so I’m leaving this post.”
Secondly, a former model and magazine editor with the pseudonym “B” wrote a tweet on their former Twitter account on the 26th and 27th, retweeting a video of a press conference by Min Hee Jin from Ador, stating, “I also had grievances against that representative for stealing my ideas.” “B” detailed the situation from the day they met the representative [rumored to be Bang Si Hyuk] before the release of the album The Most Beautiful Moment in Life to the conversation they had regarding the album’s title, concept, similar photoshoots to the ones they collaborated with the photographer on, and the exact words they used in interviews. They mentioned that they got inspiration from a manga. “B” then added, “After giving those ideas innocently, I didn’t receive any news, and later I saw an announcement from the company that they were recruiting an art director team, but there was no contact.” They also wrote a post expressing their frustration in 2022.
Lastly, there are allegations that HYBE is closely connected to a cult and that they have been involved in its management. Although the cult presents itself as a meditation group on the surface, it has been alleged to have characteristics that go beyond the boundaries of a cult. Netizens have provided alleged evidence, pointing out similarities between the cult’s concepts, naming, and HYBE’s and the presence of the cult’s symbols in the music of HYBE’s artists.
What do you think of this?
Source: (A)
