'300 Billion Won Fraud' Cha Gawon Seeks Third Arrest Warrant Request... Will Prosecutors Again Reject It?

"Hundred Label" Cha Gawon faces 300 billion won fraud allegations... Eyes on police pressure for a third arrest warrant

Police have taken the extreme step of pursuing a third arrest warrant against Cha Gawon, the representative of "Hundred Label", an entertainment agency accused of fraud on a massive "30 billion won" scale. With prosecutors having blocked the move twice by rejecting warrants earlier, legal circles and the entertainment industry are watching to see whether this third warrant request will move on to the court’s warrant substantive review.

According to police on the 22nd, the Financial Crime Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Metropolitan Investigation Unit refiled an arrest warrant request for Cha Gawon under the Act on Aggravated Punishment for Specific Economic Crimes, among other charges. Police had already applied for an arrest warrant twice—early last month and again on the 15th of this month—but prosecutors rejected both, saying they wanted the allegations to be supplemented with more meticulous construction of the criminal facts. Observers say this third request reflects the police’s strong confidence that they can prove the case.

The core of the case centers on a large-scale "intellectual property (IP)" fraud allegation. Cha Gawon is accused of proposing a business using the IP of entertainers affiliated with his company to the corporation "Nomus", receiving a massive "24.2 billion won" in advance payments but failing to carry out the actual business. In particular, police say the defendant intentionally concealed the deal while existing contracts with other companies were still in effect and entered into an "double contract", and that preparations for carrying out the business in the first place were far too insufficient.

In addition, police say fraud-related signs also surfaced in personal real estate transactions. The investigation was combined after allegations that the defendant deceived an acquaintance into believing they would sign a jeonse lease contract for a home jointly owned with the acquaintance, took "5.4 billion won" in the deposit, and then failed to carry out the contract.

In response to the police’s repeated warrant requests, Cha Gawon’s side is pushing back forcefully. Attorney Hyun Dong-yeop said, "The police have carried out illegal investigations that directly violate the Criminal Procedure Act, and a warrant request based on that shows a clear indication of why the prosecution’s authority to conduct supplementary investigation is urgently needed." He then cited the "Exclusionary Rule for Illegally Collected Evidence" and strongly urged prosecutors to apply appropriate judicial control to this warrant request as well, and to reject it again.