Chuu exposes BlockBerry Creative and the enslaving LOONA contract

A few weeks ago, Chuu was kicked out of LOONA for alleged abuse of power, but the idol has not kept her mouth shut and came out to defend herself, through an exclusive interview with Distpach, Chuu fully exposed BlockBerry Creative and the cheating he did to keep the LOONA girls under his power.

First LOONA posted several messages with company executives, where he constantly discussed a better deal. And is that Chuu signed a contract with BlockBerry in 2017, in which 70% of the revenue would go to the company and the other 30% to Chuu, but the expenses generated by the activities would go 50-50.

That’s when the problem started, as the division of revenue and expenses generated were not fair Furthermore, BlockBerry Creative opted to split the revenue first and then the expenses. This is a scheme that allows BlockBerry Creative to pass on another 20% of the expenses they should be responsible for to the members.

BlockBerry invested heavily in the LOONA project, so over time, it changed all the expense/income ratios to 50-50 in order to keep the girls inside the company. However, in January 2022, Chuu filed a lawsuit to improve her contract and won the lawsuit, which said that Chuu’s individual activities outside the company would take priority for the idol and that all profits would go to her.

.

By this time BlockBerry had already invested $11.5 million, so it accepted Chuu’s conditions and again changed the balance. First, the revenue split was changed to 3:7 in Chuu’s favor. In the event that expenses exceeded the amount of revenue generated, BlockBerry Creative agreed to cover 50% of the expenses.

Claims for damages were also possible in the new contract. If damages are caused, either party could claim up to ₩ 50.0 million KRW (about $38,200 USD). In addition, a clause was included that allowed either party to immediately terminate the contract.

But unfortunately, this was only for Chuu’s contract because of her lawsuit, as the other members are still on the initial terms, and that is that they have yet to receive a positive payroll, according to Chuu, it is estimated that each member owes more than $150,000 USD to the company and rising.

Dispatch sent Chuu a list of questions a week ago, and Chuu gave his own position on the issues through his representative. Here are Chuu’s answers to the questions sent by Dispatch:

Dispatch sent Chuu a list of questions a week ago, and Chuu conveyed her own position on the issues through her representative. Here are Chuu’s answers to the questions Dispatch sent.

Q: Did you know there was an issue with your contract?

Chuu: Last year (2021), a member mentioned to me, ‘Isn’t it time that you got paid?’ That’s when I found out that there was a problem. I heard the explanation of the contract when it was signed. However, I did not fully understand the concept of being paid after expenses were calculated. I didn’t have the time to fully figure it out…

Q: So, did you proceed with the contract termination lawsuit?

Chuu: I did the math. If the expenses were more than 70% of the sales, then the final payment was actually a minus. It was a structure where the debt actually increased while I worked. I definitely signed a 70:30 split contract (70 to company, 30 to Chuu), but there were times it was 90:10 or 100:0. It’s late, but I wanted to fix this.
For example, let’s assume a situation where there was 100,000 KRW in gross revenue and 70,000 KRW in costs. The split of the revenue would be 70,000 KRW to the company and 30,000 KRW to Chuu.
However, since the expenses are split 50:50, the expenses would be 35,000 to the company and 35,000 to Chuu.
Therefore, the company’s final payment would be 70,000-35,000=35,000 in profit, but Chuu’s would be 30,000-35,000=-5,000 in debt.

Q: We heard Chuu’s payments turned into profits in January 2022. You received over 200 million won just this year alone?

Chuu: That’s correct. It’s through a personal payment system. I had a lot of individual activities, so I was paid first. But I don’t know if the expenses were handled properly. I didn’t receive the accounting data that calculated the payment.

Q: Blockberry Creative countered that the payment was commissioned and audited by an external tax company. They’re arguing that there is no problem with the payments?

Chuu: I never asked for an external audit. The company suddenly proceeded with that. I also cannot trust them 100 percent. The important thing is, I did not properly receive the accounting data for my payment. That’s why I lost trust [in the company].

Q: In April 2022, the clause in the contract was rewritten. Chuu’s share of the revenue was changed to 70%. Did you also take charge of the decision-making process for this?

Chuu: My trust in the company, it was realistically over last year. I didn’t want to participate in Queendom either. But I didn’t want to give up on LOONA. The clause was rewritten so that I could continue with LOONA’s activities.

Q: But did you put your personal activities over the group activities? There was a bit of a commotion at the music video set.

Chuu: The filming for the music video was delayed, so I received ₩50.0 million KRW (about $38,200 USD) in restitution. However, I didn’t ask for restitution for only this issue. There have been several scheduling problems. So that’s why I claimed restitution as a warning.

Q: We checked the KakaoTalk messages and emails from both sides. It sounded almost as if BlockBerry was asking you for your permission.

Chuu: It’s true that they asked if I could participate in the schedules. However, there were some parts that were not delivered properly.

Q: Besides this, the words from both you and your mother seem a little harsh. The company seems to interpret this as a power trip.

Chuu: Employee B was the only person from the company that would communicate with me. I didn’t get mad at “B”. I was angry at how the company was being operated and complained about that.

Chuu later said that she met with the director but things didn’t end very well:

“The director treated me like I was a child. It was like the feeling of someone looking down on you from above. I was hurt by the feeling of distrust. You have to speak to be heard… So I also spoke in strong words. I couldn’t help it.”