Prosecutors look at music bribery

Seoul District Prosecutors Office on Sunday said that it had investigated allegations that two officials of broadcasting stations received many millions of won from Sidus Co., an entertainment company. The prosecutors' investigation is focused on whether the two officials who were in charge of music programs received the money in return for manipulating the music popularity charts list in favor of singers who have contracts with Sidus. The company reportedly wanted to raise the singers' positions on the charts.

Also, the prosecutors said that they would further investigate the stock shares of SM Entertainment, Doremi Media Co., and GM Entertainment to see if any were issued to officials at the broadcasting stations. They will investigate into how the officials gained the stocks and whether they used false names in acquiring them.

Early this week the prosecutors said they will summon about 10 officials from various entertainment companies for questioning.

Also, they applied for a detention warrant for Kim Jong-jin, the managing director at M-net, a music cable channel, alleging he received 52 million won ($43,300) in bribes, including 20 million won from the manager of the pop groups "Koyote" and "Papaya." Mr. Kim is suspected of having received $10,000 from the manager of a famous singer, Yoo Seung-jun, in 1998 and 20 million won from the manager of the singer Kim Sung-jip.

The prosecutors said that the managers gave money in return for playing their singers and songs more often on the music channels.

Meanwhile, the Korea Fair Trade Commission said Sunday that it would release its report on unfair trade cases committed by large entertainment companies since February. The commission said that the report would focus on anti-market acts committed by the companies, abuse of negotiating power by SM Entertainment and collusion among eight major companies.

by Jo Kang-su