Acting Academy Founded By Top Singer Controversial For Not Paying Advertisement Fees To Actors

Singer Lim Chang-jung founded YES IM Entertainment in 2018. On March 3rd, 2023, two adult actors and two child actors of the agency participated in a commercial shoot for DaegyoTV laser bubble rain large bubble gun for 12 hours from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

The advertiser DaegyoTV reportedly paid all the appearance fees to YES IM’s acting academy, but the academy did not deliver the money to the actors.

An actor who joined the shoot said, “I felt like being hit in the back of my head. I agreed to shoot the CF and didn’t ask for a contract based on my trust for the company as it was run by famous singer Lim Chang-jung”. 

Despite the controversy, the product is still being sold with the advertisement video shot at that time. However, the issue happened again. One adult actor and three child actors in another CF shoot did not receive their payments either. In addition, some employees of the agency reported to the Ministry of Employment and Labor that they did not receive their final month’s salary and severance pay.

Another actor shared, “This company is known as a ‘black company’ (a company that illegally exploits labor) among actors. I haven’t received the fees for the advertisement I filmed for the company last year”.

When someone made a post exposing Lim Chang-jung’s company for not paying them in an online cafe for actors with over 150,000 members, many people commented, “I experienced the same thing”, “The company hasn’t paid me. They’re so evil”, “Even before this incident, there have been rumors saying it was not a good company. That’s why the administrator of this online cafe has banned all the audition posts from this company”, etc.

In a phone call with Maeil Economy, former CEO Ham Ye-shin said, “After Lim Chang-jung was embroiled in a stock manipulation controversy in April last year, the academy went bankrupt and I told the actors that our bank account had been seized”, adding “We haven’t been able to settle more than 30 million won in appearance fees. However, we are making every effort to pay the actors as soon as possible, so please wait. Lim Chang-jung was not involved in the operation of the academy. We only used him as a model”.

Current CEO Shin Taek-ki explained, “The company I’m running is different from the one managed by former CEO Ham. I don’t know anything”.

However, former employee A pointed out, “Former CEO Ham, CEO Shin and CEO Lim Chang-jun are acquaintances and they founded the company together. The three are just playing ‘pass the bomb’”.

Meanwhile, YES IM Entertainment announced the launch of a global audition to select new idols in March last year with the condition that they would pay 100 million won to each of the participants who passed. However, the audition was canceled a month later due to Lim Chang-jung’s stock manipulation scandal.

Source: Daum