Song Joong Ki speaks to fans at the Beijing fan meet. (Photo : Facebook/Blossom Entertainment)
"Descendants of the Sun" star Song Joong-Ki's fan café operator, dubbed Miso (fan café ID name), asked for forgiveness from the many whose trust he broke by embezzling more than 2,796,442 won ($2,514) of the group's money.
On July 30, Saturday, one of the suspected operators of Song's fan café, dubbed Ki Aile, admitted to embezzling funds donated by thousands of fans, according to Korean news outlet The Fact, as cited by News Nate. Miso used 2,796,442 won ($2,514), while operator J used 1,640,000 won ($1,475).
The money being referred to was collected from fans who provided monetary support to make several slogans for the Hallyu star's fan meeting event on April 17. They claimed that the signs cost triple of the actual amount and split up the collected funds.
"After suspicions about the fan café support fund spending arose, J asked me to show the account transactions," Miso said in a statement obtained by Soompi. "However, I was scared of my mistake being found out so I could not show the transactions. I will not avoid the responsibility I need to take for my actions; I will take responsibility."
The news came just a week after it was reported that some of Ki Aile's officials reportedly ran off with the group's money, totaling to 6,386,442 won ($5,742). The members of the fan café's suspicions about the operators misappropriating funds stemmed after they thoroughly examined the total expenses of the slogans and several unclear receipts.
While some are relieved with the news, many fans condemned the Hallyu star's agency, Blossom Entertainment, for the way they took care of the issue. It is said that criticisms include allegations of attempting to protect the fan café's operators.
It was previously reported that Blossom Entertainment is not connected to the actor's official fan café. Ki Aile was established on Jan. 8, 2006 and has more than 85,000 enlisted fans across the world. Check out Song's "The Day We Meet Again" fan meeting below:
