[TRANS] 150112 The full account on Hallyu star Kim Junsu’s counterclaim against construction companies

“The repayment of 4.9 billion [KRW] to collect debt” VS Strong response at “defamation·false accusation·fraud lawsuit”

Hallyu star ‘JYJ’ member Kim Junsu(28) has been having a puzzling time in getting swept/caught up in various lawsuits. Following that he’s embroiled in a legal dispute in regards to his Jeju-do’s Toscana Hotel last year, he is currently getting sued for fraud. But Kim-ssi’s side had actively opposed on this and came forward to give notice of his strong response.

The hotel’s side: “The fact that we borrowed money from the construction companies isn’t true”
The construction companies are suing by using one out two promissory notes, the one that is advantageous to them.

The root of the whole incident is that Toscana Hotel is owned by Kim Junsu. Toscana Hotel opened its doors in Gangjeong-dong, Jeju-do in September last year, where Kim-ssi made an investment of about 28.5 billion KRW. This hotel was constructed with 61 rooms and 4 pool villas with a scale of 1 level below-ground and 4 levels above-ground, on an area of 21,026㎡.
Kim-ssi’s own investment is 13.5 billion KRW, out of the 28.5 billion KRW cost for the hotel’s construction. The remaining 15 billion KRW was obtained through loans.

Start of legal action surrounding loan(s)
with two construction companies last year

CJ Construction and Cheonji Consolidated Construction –who were involved in the hotel’s construction at the time– accused Kim-ssi with the suspicion of fraud at this time. The two construction companies had applied for an order for a loan payment against Kim Junsu last year already. At the time, the Jeju District Court’s 3rd Civil department had accepted the two construction companies’ application for an order for a loan payment from Kim-ssi.

The Department of Justice ordered that Kim-ssi pay for the 4.9 billion KRW loan of about 3.03 billion KRW and 1.87 billion KRW each to these construction companies. At the same time, the property –like the hotel owned by Kim-ssi– became known to be seized provisionally.

However, Kim-ssi’s side had submitted an immediate statement of objection at the time. The law firm for Kim-ssi’s side revealed the promissory note specified at the time that: “The promissory note is an accounting document and is not the actual reimbursement amount,” and denied the two construction companies’ claim. Also, they refuted, “The construction companies embezzled the cost of the materials as the inflation of the construction expenses, if anything”. Currently the Jeju District Court’s order for payment is a situation that’s cancelled with Kim-ssi’s side’s objection.

The construction companies charge for compensation of damages
Accusation against Kim-ssi to avoid

Kim-ssi’s side goes way back to the time of the loan for the construction cost of hotel to when they were made to write the promissory note. Although Kim-ssi’s side received 15 billion KRW, 6 billion KRW out of that was the loan they received under the pretext for the hotel’s facilities fund. The loan received with the facilities fund was feasible for the construction companies only. Therefore 6 billion KRW was deposited directly into Cheonji Consolidated Construction’s side’s account at the time of the loan. After this, Cheonji Consolidated Construction excluded over 800 million KRW of the facilities fund and paid 5 billion KRW back to Kim-ssi’s side. The 5 billion KRW from the start was Kim-ssi’s side’s loan.

The promissory note was created in a total of 2 pieces for this process. The promissory note created on August 4 and made public by Cheonji Consolidated Construction, and the promissory note created on August 5; is the promissory note revealed by Kim-ssi’s side. On the promissory note that was made public by Cheonji Consolidated Construction, the phrase: “The promissory note is an accounting document and is not the actual reimbursement amount” was omitted. Kim-ssi’s side at the time came to discover that they received an additional promissory note to prepare for what might happen, similar to the situation this time.

Despite the evidence against Kim-ssi’s side by Cheonji Consolidated Construction, the reason for the matter of the legal action toward him, is because Kim-ssi’s side found out about the fact that they[T/N: Cheonji Consolidated Construction] inflated the construction expenses at the time of the hotel’s construction. Toscana Hotel had damages caused by the two construction companies’ slow construction after the hotel’s opening and prepared their claim for the damages, knowing the fact about inflated construction expenses. The hotel’s side is arguing that the construction companies used media play to avoid this.

The contents of the accusation itself is groundless
Kim-ssi did not write the promissory note

Under a civil suit action, the two construction companies accused Kim-ssi, last December 11, with the suspicion of fraud for the non-payment of construction costs at the Jeju Dongbu Police Station. After this, upon the Jeju Dongbu Police Station completing the investigation of the accuser, they referred the incident to the Seoul Gangnam Police Station on December 23; since most of the money transactions took place in Seoul.

About this, Toscana Hotel’s side set out to take immediate, resolute action. The details of the accusation itself is not only groundless but moreover, is judged to be excessive in defamation and etc.. Kim-ssi is in the position where he can no longer condone their intentions with ulterior motives to abuse and try to benefit from tarnishing the point that he’s a Hallyu star.

Lawyer Jung Heewon, who is in charge of Toscana Hotel’s legal representation said, “They are fraudulently suing with the same exact documents they used for the order of payment application. This is not even rebutting because the situation is the promissory note was found to be invalid already,” and gave a strong response.

Lawyer Jung said, “It is not true that he[T/N: Kim Junsu] borrowed from the construction companies, and also the construction companies’ claim that he did not paying back the money from them is a groundless, ill-founded claim for any person. Moreover, the fraud is established when someone swindles money out of another through deceit. Kim Junsu didn’t even write the promissory note during the construction process and also, he never met or spoke with them. He cannot even be the principal subject of fraud legally.”

Also, he said, “If these people weren’t looking to damage the reputation of a star and wanted to reveal the truth, then they would sue Kim Junsu’s father, who was the one who worked with the construction companies, and not Kim Junsu. The construction companies are committing a fraudulent act through the press to harm Kim Junsu, a Hallyu star, on purpose.”

Lawyer Jung disclosed, “CJ Construction and Cheonji Construction have greatly damaged the reputation of Kim Junsu, who is a public figure and whose reputation is his asset, through their lies which establishes a case for defamation. Additionally, filing an application for provisional seizure of property through the courts by providing evidence of a loan that does not exist establishes that they have attempted to file a fraudulent lawsuit. There is absolutely no truth to their lawsuit for fraud and the construction company representatives know that yet they are suing an innocent person, which establishes that they have committed libel. This is the content of our complaint [that was filed to Gangnam Police Station]. During the police investigation, the fact that the construction company representative’s stance makes no sense will be revealed immediately. Just looking how they used the media to release that they have filed a case for fraud, there is no relation to finding out the truth and the Hallyu star will undeniably suffer harm. Their lawsuit is only to damage his reputation and we will file our complaint with the police soon.”

Source: Ilyo Seoul
Translated by: rilanna of JYJ3
Proofread by: ohmyjunsu
Shared by: JYJ3