Korean boy band Madtown have filed a lawsuit against their agency after they have been completely abandoned without any manager, dormitory and office.
They sued GNI Entertainment before the Seoul Central District Court to annul their contracts and be able to find another agency.
Madtown, composed of Jota, Daewon, Moos, Buffy, Heo Jun and H.O., debuted under J.Tune Camp in 2014 and after the agency closed, they moved to GNI Entertainment last December.
However, the CEO of GNI, Sung Chul Ho, was arrested last March for fraud.
Their lawyer explained that they have been left on their own.
"Madtown has been receiving no monetary, material, or human resources from their agency. There are no employees working in their agency, their website is down, and the office space has already been sold," lawyer Sun Jong Moon said.
He added that the boy band "has no transportation, no manager, and not even a dormitory. This makes it impossible for the members to hold any activities, and they have been unable to promote since their last album, which was released in June 2016."
They released the album "Emotion" in June last year.
The lawyer said members are hurting because of their current situation.
"Just when they were about to blossom as a group, they were forced to move agencies (In 2016, Madtown had to change labels to GNI Entertainment from J. Tune Camp, which was in the process of closing its business). And now they are in a situation where they can't perform at all, and they're hurting because of it," he said.
He said the goal of the lawsuit is to free Madtown from their contracts.
"As long as their current contract is in effect, Madtown cannot receive help from or sign on with a different agency. They need resources to create music and be active as singers, but that's impossible in their current situation. But they have been unable to promote for over a year now. All they want is to be able to perform and promote freely," he said.
