Actor Kang Ji Hwan will have to pay a hefty fine for the damages he caused with his sexual assault case that happened a couple of years ago.
Previously, it was reported that the actor took home two outsourced female employees (hereinafter referred to as “A” and “B”) to have more drinks at his place following a company dinner. ‘B’ says she woke up and saw that the actor was attempting to sexually assault A next to her and screamed when she did that the actor stopped his attempts. She told police her clothes were everywhere leading her to believe she suffered the same fate hence the police were called in.
The case concluded when in mid-2019, Kang Ji Hwan legal team issued an official statement on his behalf, in his statement he admitted to all the charges brought against him and apologized to the victims and to everyone who was concerned by his actions. He was then given a sentence of 2 years and 6 months in prison with a probationary period of 3 years. He has been inactive ever since.
On May 26, Korean news outlets reported that the Seoul High Court’s civil affairs division ruled in favor of the production company “Santa Claus.” They ordered both Kang Ji Hwan and his agency [at the time] Jellyfish Entertainment to pay jointly 5.3 billion won [roughly $4.189 million].
This is because he had caused damages to the production company after dropping out of “Joseon Survival Period” which had been shooting at the time of the news being made public. At the time, he had filmed 12 episodes and the production company was put in a very tough position having to re-cast a different actor for the remaining episodes incurring huge losses.
They had filed a lawsuit demanding 6.38 billion Won [$5 million] in damages.
The court concluded in the production company’s favor and said that both Kang Ji Hwan and Jellyfish Entertainment were responsible for paying the damages as per the contract they had signed with the production company. The court also acknowledged that Kang Ji Hwan was responsible for some of the appearance fees paid by the drama production company, these are the fees they paid to cast another actor.
According to reports, the general consent is that actors and labels each pay half of the damages in such cases. The ratio might end up being different depending on the degree of negligence.
Stay tuned for updates on the case.
Source: (A)
