BOL4’s agency is demanding a formal apology from Kim Geun Tae, a political candidate for The People’s Party.

On April 8, Kim Geun Tae held a press conference at the National Assembly in which he accused the marketing company Creativer of illegally acquiring and misusing regular citizens’ online accounts in order to manipulate music charts. The artists that were accused of taking part in this chart manipulation were Highlight’s Lee Gikwang, Ko Seung Hyung, GWSN, BADKIZ, BOL4, Song Ha Ye, Young Tak, YOYOMI, So Hyang, and Ali. The agencies of the artists have since denied the claims and many have announced plans for legal action.

On April 16, BOL4’s agency, Shofar Music, stated, “After The People’s Party candidate Kim Geun Tae held a press conference in which he falsely accused BOL4 of chart manipulation without any proof, Shofar Music and its artists have experienced serious damage to our reputations. We can no longer tolerate this situation in silence. We judged that this issue might have an impact on the recent elections, so we decided to wait to release a statement until after the election.”

The statement went on to clearly deny the accusations made in the April 8 press conference. Shofar Music further clarified that they had never heard of Creativer or its subsidiary, Lionti Holdings.

“We have some questions to ask candidate Kim Geun Tae,” the statement continued. “First, you alleged that when singer A’s song was streamed as well, A was in fact being used to divert suspicion away from BOL4’s chart manipulation. Is this a judgment you made yourself before announcing it? And if so, what was the basis for this judgment?

“Second, BOL4 debuted in April 2016 and in that year alone, they ranked high on the music charts with several songs like ‘Galaxy,’ ‘Hard to Love,’ ‘Tell Me You Love Me,’ ‘Grumpy,’ and ‘You.’ They have been solid chart-toppers since their debut. We understand from your report that Creativer was founded in March 2017. At that point in time, our artist was already well-known to the public and had many hit songs. Are you suggesting that right after we released the chart-topping ‘Tell Me You Love Me’ in December 2016, we spent a lot of money to promote an album that had already been released? Does this make logical sense to you? What proof do you have to connect Creativer with our agency?

“Third, as fans have pointed out, BOL4 has participated in many OSTs that Shofar Music had no involvement in producing or promoting. When BOL4 receives an offer for an OST and sings the song, the copyright, right of profit, and right of promotion goes entirely to the drama OST production company. Is it possible that the evidence you collected is related to the drama OSTs? If so, aren’t BOL4 and Shofar Music the victims rather than the criminals?

“Please give us the evidence for at least one song so that we, Shofar Music, can directly check whether we were involved in the production and promotion of the song. If it turns out to be an OST, then please ask the OST production company for the truth about chart manipulation.”

The statement concludes with Shofar Music asking Kim Geun Tae for an answer to the above questions and clear proof as to his accusations. If he is unable to provide proof, they demand an official apology and a formal statement acknowledging that he had released incorrect information.

OSEN asked Kim Geun Tae about his response to this statement. The candidate stated, “The election ended yesterday and we are still in a state of confusion. We will prepare the necessary documents and release a statement as soon as possible, perhaps as early as tomorrow, so please be patient.”

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