Members of K-pop boy band Omegax were in tears as they revealed the abuses and sexual harassment they suffered from the wife of their agency’s CEO.
While in Los Angeles last month for their concert tour, Omega X members were filmed by a netizen being verbally and physically abused by Kang Seong-hee, the wife of Spire Entertainment CEO Hwang Sung-woo, in a parking lot. Hwang Sung-woo resigned as CEO of the agency last week.
“I was just waiting outside for my Uber Eats order, and I witnessed the CEO hitting the members. My hands were shaking so hard and I didn't know what to do. They were hit right in front of me, but I couldn't do anything," a fan in LA posted on Twitter after witnessing the incident, according to SBS News.
Omega X made their debut in 2021 with 11 members: Jaehan, Sebin, Hwichan, Yechan, Hangyeom, Taedong, Xen, Jehyun, Kevin, Junghoon and Hyuk.
After this, Omega X members had to pay for their flight so they could go back to South Korea after their agency canceled their tickets.
They were originally planning to fly back on Oct. 23 but Spire Entertainment canceled their flight tickets, leaving them abandoned. They arrived in South Korea on Oct. 24.
On Nov. 16, Omega X members, together with their lawyers, held a press conference to reveal what abuses they suffered under Spire Entertainment.
They are now aiming to terminate their exclusive contracts with the agency based on the abuses they experienced, and will file legal action against the agency.
“The reason that we just endured this kind of treatment was because this felt like our last opportunity in the entertainment industry,” said Jaehan, the Korea JoongAng Daily reported.
He added, “This was not the first debut for any of us, so we didn’t want to risk our careers because of this kind of incident. We thought we had to endure it for our fans, but we reached our breaking point. We want to muster up the courage and speak up for all the people who are being treated unfairly somewhere in our society.”
Lawyer Seo Ju-yeon, who is the group’s legal representative, revealed that Kang Seong-hee sexually harassed the members by stroking their thighs, putting her face close to them and making the listen to her breath.
“After practice, CEO Kang would force us to drink heavily with her. She always told us ‘You better bow down flat to me if you want to keep being Omega X,’ ‘I’m going to kill you,’ or ‘I’m going to kill myself.’ Members were very emotionally unstable due to this, and many are currently undergoing psychiatric treatment. We want to be respected as human beings, not treated like a product,” said Jaehan.
Yechan added, “At first, we tried to trust her and follow her lead. But the more time passed, I realized she was having such a negative impact on our lives. She took away our time to practice; she would call out members and talk to them for hours, and I remember that the rest of the members would wait in the practice room until late into the night, waiting for Kang to let them go. When I finally realized that I was being gaslit, I felt like I was a fool.”
“When the older members were forced to drink heavily with Kang, I tried to join so I could be some kind of help. I tried to laugh it off, but couldn’t take it anymore I don’t think this kind of stuff happened to only us,” said Yechan.
Sebin said, “When we tried to refuse the heavy drinking, she would intimidate us by saying that there will be no next album for Omega X.”
Seo Ju-yeon said, “Kang would swing between being kind to the members and then abusing them. The members became unable to trust themselves. The sexual harassment by Kang shows how power imbalances crushes young people’s dreams. Our legal firm will do our best so that the members can continue being active, and so that this kind of abuse does not happen again.”
Lawyer No Jong-eon, who also accompanied Omega X at the press conference, said, “We are planning to press charges against Kang for physical assault, threatening behavior, sexual harassment and financial exploitation.”
It was previously reported four members of Omega X were forced to perform at a concert in Chile despite that they tested positive for Covid-19.
The agency also demanded members to pay 300 million to 400 million won each ($227,000 to $302,520) as fees they allegedly owed the company.
Here is Spire Entertainment’s statement issued on Nov. 7:
“Hello, this is Spire Entertainment.
“First of all, we deeply apologize to all OMEGA X members, families, fans, and everyone whose feelings were hurt by an unfortunate event that has happened recently.
“Spire Entertainment takes the full responsibility and announce that the CEO who’s responsible for this matter has resigned.
“We'd also like to apologize for not responding well and disappointing many fans with inadequate response to the situation.
“We will take in all your advices and comments to do our best to prevent this kind of things from happening again and focus on providing a better environment for the members so that they can focus only on the artists’ activities. Please continue supporting OMEGA X, and we promise to try our best to be back with better news.”