Cha Ga-won Faces Third Arrest Warrant Review; Legal Counsel Protests, Claiming No Risk of Flight or Evidence Destruction

Police have filed for an arrest warrant for the third time against Cha Ga-won, head of the entertainment agency One Hundred Label, who is facing fraud charges involving tens of billions of won.

On July 22, the Financial Crime Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency requested an arrest warrant for CEO Cha on charges including fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Economic Crimes. Previously, police applied for arrest warrants twice—in early June and on the 15th of the same month—but prosecutors rejected both, requesting further investigation with the intent to supplement the formulation of criminal facts.

Cha is accused of proposing a business utilizing the intellectual property (IP) of artists under the entertainment agency she operates to Normers Inc., signing a contract, and receiving an advance payment of 24.2 billion won without actually fulfilling the business.

Police suspect that Cha entered into a dual contract while concealing the unlikelihood that her existing contract would terminate, and that she also lacked readiness to carry out the business. Separately, Cha is also accused of failing to fulfill a lease agreement after promising to sign a jeonse (lump-sum deposit lease) agreement with an acquaintance for each other's houses and receiving a deposit of 5.4 billion won.

Cha's side strongly protested the police's third warrant application. Attorney Hyun Dong-yeop of Law Firm Hageum, Cha's legal representative, stated through an official statement and a YouTube video, "The fact that the police are requesting an arrest warrant based on illegal investigations that directly violate the Criminal Procedure Act is proof that the prosecutors' supplementary investigation authority is desperately needed."

Attorney Hyun also claimed, "Chairperson Cha Ga-won has fully cooperated with the investigation and submitted all relevant data and forensics materials, so there is no concern about evidence destruction and no reason to flee. As a mother with a middle school-aged child, there is zero risk of flight." He repeatedly denied the necessity of an arrest, adding, "The formatting of former employees' computers is merely the company's standard protocol, not evidence destruction, and they are driving Chairperson Cha Ga-won into a corner based solely on employees' statements."

Meanwhile, separately from the Cha case, police have also applied for arrest warrants twice against HYBE Chairman Bang Si-hyuk, who is under suspicion of fraudulent unfair transactions under the Capital Markets Act, but prosecutors rejected both. At the time, prosecutors returned the warrants with the reasoning that the police had not sufficiently fulfilled the requested supplementary investigation requirements.



(SBS Entertainment News, reported by Kang Kyung-yoon)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.