K-POP group OMEGA X has decided to press charges against their former CEO Kang Seong Hee of Spire Entertainment, and the members have applied for the termination of their contracts, as they revealed in a press conference held on November 16 KST.
Warning: Mentions of self-harm, harassment, and suicide. Read with caution.
Press Conference
The members of the group, Jaehan, Junghoon, Sebin, Jaehyun, Kevin, Taedong, Hwichan, Hyuk, Hangyeom, and Xen, along with their legal representatives, held a press conference to speak directly on the abuse scandal with Spire Entertainment’s CEO. They opened up about the physical, sexual, and mental abuse they had to go through, the hardships they had to endure under the company’s management, and the reasons for the contract termination. Their legal representative stated, “We will proceed with pressing charges against the former CEO for threatening, assaulting, and exploiting the members. First, we will apply for nullifying the exclusive contract for OMEGA X’s activities.”
OMEGA X Reveals Hardships
Apparently, the former CEO was caught physically and verbally abusing the members of Omega X after their Los Angeles concert on a previous occasion. Spire Entertainment then officially released a statement, and the CEO resigned. The members opened up about the physical, sexual, and verbal abuse at the conference as they revealed, “Including touching our thighs, holding our hands, and touching our faces, she habitually sexually harassed us.”
In addition to regularly saying things like ‘if you want to keep doing OMEGA X you better keep crawling [at my feet’], ‘I’m going to kill you, and more verbally abusive words, she made our [OMEGA X] members shake in anxiety by threatening us that she will commit suicide.” The leader of the group Jaehan added that CEO Kang would make them drink heavily with her after practice and threatened them to obey her if they wanted to continue being OMEGA X.
She would call one of the members to talk with her for hours while the practices would be going on. The other employees of the company and the staff humiliated and abused them at times as well. The members revealed that they are suffering mentally and psychologically and are taking psychiatric help.
Resolve to Fight Back
Jaehan mentioned that the group endured the abuse for a very long time for the sake of the fans and their own dreams, “The reason why we couldn’t help but to endure and keep quiet about all of this until now was that we were afraid that our last chance [to succeed as artists] would disappear if we didn’t.”
For the sake of our fans who trusted us, supported us, and waited for us, we had to endure. As the eldest member and the leader [of OMEGA X], seeing the members struggling and getting exhausted, I was afraid and worried that our dreams would collapse. I
wanted to protect OMEGA X.” the members finally decided that they had endured enough and needed to put a stop to the abuse for the sake of everyone with dreams of their own or is receiving harsh treatment. Thus, after returning from their world tour, the group decided to ask for legal help.
The group exposed the harsh management systems of various entertainment agencies, and the abuse trainees go through or even idols. They promised their fans that they will not give up as they filed trademarks for their name ‘OMEGA X’ and the fandom’s name ‘FOR X’.
