▲Actress Kim Soo-mi. Provided by SKY Actress Kim Soo-mi was accused of embezzlement from a food company in which she owned a stake.
According to the police on the 22nd, the food company Morning Glory F&B filed a complaint with the Yongsan Police Station in Seoul, saying, “Mr. Kim and his son Myeong-ho Jeong, director of Morning Glory F&B, sold the trademark rights to the ‘Kim Soo-mi’ brand, which had an exclusive contract with Morning Glory F&B for 10 years, to others.”
Morning Glory F&B said, “Mr. Kim and Mr. Jeong sold the ‘Kim Soo-mi’ brand without permission to companies run by Mr. Jeong, including Morning Glory C&M and Morning Glory Media, on approximately 10 occasions between 2019 and 2020. Through this, (Mr. Kim and Mr. Jeong) He claimed, “I received a profit of about 565 million won and a share of the business.”
He continued, “When Mr. Jeong was serving as CEO of Morning Glory F&B, he embezzled a total of approximately 623 million won while in charge of depositing and withdrawing company funds.”
Among these are ▲ charges of withdrawing money without permission by accounting for it as ‘Jeong Myeong-ho’s provisional payment’ (approximately 101.98 million won) ▲ accounting for it as ‘teacher’s house kimchi’ and ‘teacher’s house organic dish set’ and withdrawing money for which there is no obligation to pay. The charges included making payments on behalf of others (approximately 169 million won), embezzlement of short-term loans (approximately 306.7 million won), and false service payments (approximately 45.29 million won).
Morning Glory F&B claimed that Mr. Kim also embezzled 300 million won by arbitrarily withdrawing it from the company’s bank account when he ran out of funds to pay personal taxes.
Morning Glory F&B is a company that sells kimchi, crab, and salted fish using Kim Soo-mi’s portrait rights. Mr. Jeong has served as an executive director since 2018, when the company was founded, and was inaugurated as CEO in March 2021. However, he was dismissed by a decision of the board of directors in November of last year, and currently serves only as an executive director.
Mr. Jeong told The Fact, “It is true that there has been an internal conflict within the company since last year, but it is absurd for the company to sue me and my mother.” He added, “The company suffered difficulties after the fatal mistake of the current CEO who sued me was revealed, and I was the first to sue the other side. Two charges have been filed against him, including embezzlement fraud and forgery of private documents. He refuted, “We have never granted (the company) an exclusive right to use it.”
Actress Seo Hyo-rim, Jeong’s wife and Kim’s daughter-in-law, said, “Because it is a family matter, we are cautious about how to reveal our position,” and added, “My husband plans to reveal his position soon.”
Reporter Yerim Yoon
