A lot has been going on with IU the past couple of days!
It all started with a media outlet Sky E-Daily reporting that IU was the only celebrity and female to seek the biggest profit of a land she bought back in 2018 in Gyeonggido’s Gwacheon.
She had bought the land back in January 2018 for approximately $4 million, and because of the GTX (the new high-speed rail system lines that being built), she bought the building.
According to the report, she was the biggest and only female celebrity to benefit the most from the increase in the property prices. It increased from approx. $4 million to $6.2 million, resulting in an estimated profit of $2 million.
The issue grew bigger and some netizens became furious with the idea that IU could have possibly benefited from the property and some speculating she bought it because of insider information.
Others went as far as to claim she’s committing investment fraud knowing well that the land will go through GTX line and buying it in hopes of selling it in the future for a higher price.
IU’s agency shortly released a statement thereafter firmly denying the report released by the media outlet, they explained she bought it for personal use and because it was close to her home in Bangbae.
They also went on to explain the profit margin mentioned in the report is ‘impossible.’ You can read the full statement here.
Later the agency returned with a statement to IU’s official Facebook page, in their statement they assure that the building is for personal use sharing many photos of it, she’s currently using it as her own studio and the rest of space is being used for her mother’s business.
The post also goes on to explain the agency would be taking strict legal action against the spread of malicious rumors to defame IU’s image. They’re currently collecting evidence provided by IU’s fans through emails.
IU then personally addressed the issue in an instagram post in which she swore on her entire career that she hasn’t bought the building with intentions of selling it any time soon.
She wrote,
“Obtaining unjust information for 2.3 billion Won is simply not true. I swear on the dearest thing to me, my career, there isnt even one little bit of lie in me.
It’s a place I have chosen to stay in for a long time carrying out my plans. However, there are still people who claim I obtained unfair information in hopes of gaining unjust profit. To those who claim, show me your clear evidence.
I think you should at least show that amount of effort if you’re going to completely discredit a person’s values and behavior.”
She goes on to ask reporters to respect the privacy of the other people using the building beside her and the neighbors.
Following all of this and after IU’s agency announced they would be taking strict legal action, many netizens are scrambling to delete their comments on various articles posted to Korean websites.
Meanwhile, other netizens are asking IU’s agency to take strict legal action against those who tried to hurt IU’s character based on one report not backed by facts.
My Thoughts
First of all, when I saw the initial report I immediately knew it was wrong, just by reading the title. It was about IU and I knew it was wrong when I saw her name attached to ‘fraud allegations.’
I know there is no way you can fully know a person just by watching them online, but IU has proven herself to be an amazing person inside and out like a hundred times already.
She donates and helps out people regularly, she is polite, she is successful but not cocky, and everybody in the industry speaks highly of her. And let me tell you this, you can only achieve so much success if you’re a pure person at heart and IU deserves every penny she earned.
For starters what everybody was up in arms about isn’t even illegal! It’s unfair that people sometimes obtain information like this but it’s not illegal and people hated the fact that she could have made so much profit using insider tips.
The news outlet that reported this ‘scoop’ needs to be held reliable and IU should take strict legal action not only against those who hurt her with comments but against the outlet so when somebody has a bRILLIANT idea that can ruin her image, they recall this.
As far as I know, news outlets are penalized heavily for reporting false news. Asking a Korean lawyer about it a couple of months back, the penalties given to news outlets by Korean law are very strict so I was extremely shocked they just went on a wimp and decided they would report something like that without actual grounds, its astonishing how some people think!
You’d think that since Korean laws around media, defamation and such are extremely strict, news outlets would be careful but then you’d be wrong.
I seriously hope the news outlet that broke the scope be held reliable for this. Some netizens just want to jump the gun at celebrities and its disgusting how some of them are quick to eat up clearly false stories in hopes of ruining someone’s reputation. Its also scary just how much such false allegations can affect you and ruin everything you worked so hard for!!!