A famous actor who committed sexual offenses amid filming was ordered to pay his drama’s production company 5.3 billion won

Court awarded monetary damages to the production company of “Joseon Survival Period” in Kang Ji Hwan’s sexual assault case. 

Actor Kang Ji Hwan, who was convicted of forcibly molesting and sexually assaulting two female employees of a production outsourcing company, was repeatedly ordered by the court to pay 5.3 billion won to the production company of TV Chosun’s drama “Joseon Survival Period”, in which he originally starred in as the main character. 

The Seoul High Court pronounced an official judgement to the advantage of the drama’s production studio Santa Claus Entertainment, declaring that Kang Ji Hwan and his former agency were responsible for paying about 5.3 billion won in damages. 

In the first trial, only 600 million won was ordered to be jointly paid by Kang Ji Hwan and his former agency. However, in the second trial, the court raised the monetary damages to 5.3 billion won in favor of the production company. The court cited a clause in the proviso that Kang Ji Hwan’s former agency would continue to fulfill its legal obligations even if he moved to another company in the middle when he signed a contract with his drama’s production company.

Previously, in July 2019, Kang Ji Hwan was indicted on charges of forcibly molesting one female staff and sexually assaulting another while having dinner with the staff of “Joseon Survival Period”. He was eventually sentenced to two and a half years in prison and three years of probation.

As a result, Kang Ji Hwan immediately dropped out of the drama, and his contract was canceled due to his arrest. At that time, Kang Ji Hwan had finished filming until episode 12, and for the remaining 8 episodes, the production company had to cast another actor to replace him. Therefore, Santa Claus Entertainment sued Kang Ji Hwan for a total of 6.38 billion won in damages.

Source: wikitree