On January 7, MLD Entertainment released an official statement in response to Daisy’s claims that “Finding Momoland” was rigged.

Earlier that day, KBS published an interview with Daisy and her mother in which Daisy stated that she had been offered a place in MOMOLAND regardless of her elimination on “Finding Momoland” and that the members had been charged for part of the production costs.

“Finding Momoland” was a 2016 survival program in which trainees from MLD Entertainment (Duble Kick Company at the time) competed for spots in a new girl group. That group eventually became MOMOLAND.

The following is MLD Entertainment’s response:

Hello, this is MLD Entertainment. This is our agency’s response to the report that was released through KBS today. First, there was no manipulation of votes or other fraudulent actions regarding member selection on the Mnet survival program ‘Finding Momoland.’ ‘Finding Momoland’ was not a regular audition program featuring ordinary trainees, but a survival program aiming at debuting 10 trainees from our agency. In order to debut, the trainees had to gather 3000 audience members, but they were unable to fulfill the conditions and their debut plans fell through. This is why it is illogical to say that the show was rigged. As for Daisy’s inclusion, we terminated the contracts of eliminated trainees after the program ended, but the CEO of the agency saw Daisy’s potential and recommended she stay as an agency trainee. Second, the payment of production costs was included in the exclusive contract, which was based on the standard exclusive contract from the Fair Trade Commission, and agreed upon by the members and their parents. Daisy agreed to this part of the contract as well when she was included in the lineup. Starting last year, Daisy’s mother has threatened the agency multiple times. It appears that she has taken further malicious action because we did not respond to those threats. We have prepared documents of proof to refute Daisy’s claims and we intend to respond with legal action. We also deeply regret that although we explained all this to the reporter in question, KBS only reported one side of the story.

KBS’s report included statements from MLD Entertainment and CJ ENM, the company behind Mnet (who broadcast ‘Finding Momoland’). In the report, MLD Entertainment sources stated that Daisy was added to the group to “fill in the aspects that were missing in the group” and that the members had signed contracts in advance about paying part of the production costs of the show. CJ ENM denied any involvement in the show other than programming it for broadcast as a subcontractor.

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