Japanese Trainee Referred to Prosecutors for Fraud After Vanishing Two Months Before K-pop Group Debut
A 29-year-old Japanese trainee was referred to prosecutors on July 29 after vanishing in December. He left his agency ₩57.43 million in the red and forced the group to debut with five members instead
Seoul's Yeongdeungpo Police Station referred a 29-year-old Japanese trainee, identified only as A, to prosecutors on July 29 on charges of fraud — without detention.
A disappeared in December when he was two months away from debuting in a planned 6-member male idol group. He left a single message: "the trust relationship has collapsed." The group had already finished its music video, released audio, and posted member photos publicly.
When the agency dug into what happened, they found A had been juggling two contracts the whole time. He signed exclusively with them while secretly signed to another agency. This wasn't his first rodeo either. He'd previously ghosted at least one other Korean agency, and the pattern was always the same: sign up, take the money and training, disappear to Japan when it was time to actually work.
Yeongdeungpo Police issued an exit ban on A and launched an investigation after the agency filed a complaint in March. He's still in Korea.
The agency's damage bill came to ₩57.43 million. Training costs, song and choreography production, recording fees, music video filming, meals, accommodation—it all added up. The group debuted anyway, just as a 5-member unit without him.
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