Former Bodeum employees say CEO Kang Hyung-wook accessed office chats without consent

Social Affairs

Published: 12 Jun. 2024, 20:05 Updated: 17 Jun. 2024, 16:25

Former Bodeum employees say CEO Kang Hyung-wook accessed office chats without consent

Kang Hyung-wook, right, and his wife Susan Elder deny recent accusations mainly centering around their workplace behavior in a video posted on their YouTube channel BodeumTV on May 24 [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Two former employees of Bodeum Company, along with 331 citizens recruited through social media, reported celebrity CEO and dog trainer Kang Hyung-wook and his wife, Susan Elder, to Gyeonggi's Namyangju Nambu Police Precinct for allegedly accessing employees' office messenger conversations without their consent.

The complainants accused Kang and Elder of accessing internal messenger conversations stored on the company's collaboration app on July 21, 2018. The couple reportedly read six months' worth of conversations in one day, some of which they disclosed in a KakaoTalk group chat with other employees.

Kang has been embroiled in controversy since May, when negative reviews began popping up across job search platforms and the comments sections of his YouTube videos characterizing him as an abusive employer.

The report sent via mail on Tuesday, was sparked by the couple's unsatisfactory response to accusations of previous workplace mistreatment.

Kang and Elder acknowledged having read the messenger conversations while explaining the employee abuse allegations in a 55-minute explanatory YouTube video released May 24.

“After switching the company messenger to a paid version, an audit function was available,” said Elder. “I wanted to opt out because it felt like snooping in someone's diary. But when I saw the employees mocking my son and misandrist content against male employees, I lost my composure.”

The complainants argued that such actions violated Articles 48 and 49 of the Information and Communications Network Act, which prohibit unauthorized access to information systems and the disclosure of others' secrets.

Namyangju Nambu Police Precinct has registered the report and launched an investigation into the matter, MBC reported Wednesday.

Kang gained popularity after appearing on the dog training entertainment program “There is No Bad Dog in the World,” which began airing in 2015 on EBS. A number of Kang’s public appearances, including on KBS TV show “Dogs are Wonderful” and offline event “Dang Dang Trekking,” were canceled.

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]