BTS The prison term for the head of an entertainment company that produces 'Crave Photo'

BTS The prison term for the head of an entertainment company that produces 'Crave Photo'

Even though they knew about the injunction, they were sentenced to prison for producing publications made by weaving photos of members of the group BTS (BTS), signing a publishing contract, and receiving money.

Judge Park Soo-hyun of the Seoul Western District Court sentenced a 55-year-old CEO of entertainment company A, who was indicted on charges of fraud, to 10 months in prison and a 61-year-old CEO of MGM Media, who produced a photo book, to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years, respectively, and ordered probation and 120 hours of community service.

The court did not detain Kim, who sentenced him to prison, to give him a chance to agree with the victims.

In January last year, they produced "Star Focus Special Magazine" using BTS portraits and signed a sales contract with a publisher without obtaining prior approval from BTS and its agency Big Hit Entertainment.

At the time of the contract, Big Hit had applied for a provisional disposition to ban the publication of books using BTS' portraits and names on the grounds that MGM Media used BTS' portraits without obtaining prior approval, but they were put on trial on charges of receiving hundreds of millions of won from the victims in the name of advance payment without informing them of this fact.

Some of the contracted quantities were printed, but most of the magazines were reportedly not sold under the injunction.

"The defendants are said to have notified the victims of the injunction before signing the contract, but they have not specifically stated when and how they said it," the court said. "If they knew there was a possibility that the accused might not be able to publish it, they would not have to write it in the contract."

"The defendants did not come up with any other measures to compensate for the damage or return the money they received from the victims," he said. "We plead guilty to receiving advance payments for the supply of goods by deceiving the victims."