New figure emerges in the Jang case

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New figure emerges in the Jang case

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Yoo Jang-ho

Bundang Police reported yesterday that they have identified a high-profile company head who acted inappropriately while being served drinks by late actress Jang Ja-yeon.

Lee Myeong-gyun from the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency announced that police have collected statements from two of Jang’s acquaintances saying that the three of them were forced to act as hostesses for an unidentified head of an online news company.

The two people were fellow female entertainers belonging to Jang’s former talent agency, The Contents Entertainment, run by Kim Sung-hoon.

Lee quoted one of the two women as saying, “Last autumn, Kim called us in to serve drinks to the CEO at a room salon in Seoul. Jang sat beside him and entertained him well.”

The unidentified figure was not, however, mentioned in a document allegedly written by Jang about situations in which she said she was exploited. The paper turned up after Jang committed suicide earlier this month.

Police said they are planning to summon the person soon. “We have focused on analyzing the contents and names within the document so far, but now we need to enlarge the scope of the probe and investigate this figure,” Lee said.

Police also said that three or four days before Jang committed suicide, she went to a real estate office near her home to send a fax.

“The document was composed of six or seven pages and the handwriting seemed to be hers,” Lee quoted the head of the office as saying.

Authorities are assuming that the document sent via fax could be the same one they are now analyzing.

Lee said, “Jang must have sent the document to ask someone for help before committing suicide.”

Meanwhile, Yoo Jang-ho, head of the talent agency that was managing Jang at the time of her death, showed up at the Bundang Police Precinct at 1 p.m. yesterday for questioning. He came with his lawyer and a bodyguard.

“I have never refused to be present for questioning,” said Yoo. “I will sincerely cooperate with the police.”

Before Yoo appeared, Lee said, “We will ask him questions related to the document. Questions include whether the original document was really burned, how many people have seen it, how many were copied and how they were leaked.”

On March 18, Jang’s older brother filed a defamation suit against Yoo and two other people known to be the president of a major media company and an IT firm. The brother is also pressing charges against an additional four for allegedly forcing the late actress to have sex with them.

Police also intend to subpoena an additional five figures listed on the first four pages of Jang’s document. They raided Kim’s old office in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul, on Tuesday and obtained 96 pieces of evidence, including hair and other DNA samples.

The National Institute of Scientific Investigation has been asked to perform an analysis of the evidence.

According to police, a man who had identified himself as “Wang Chen Chen” and a close friend of Jang in a letter to the media postmarked March 9 that claimed Jang was exploited, turned out to be a prisoner being held in Busan.

“An investigation has found the sender is a 29-year-old man who has nothing to do with Jang. He has been in jail since 2003,” Lee said. “He is a patient with mental problem and just wrote the letter from media reports.”


By Jang Joo-young, E Choong-hyoung [smartpower@joongang.co.kr]
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