Police crack down on showbiz corruption

Police said Thursday they booked 29 people, including a chief executive of a cable TV network, who allegedly took money from new singers in return for rigging various online rankings of K-pop songs or helping them appear on TV.

They were among the 140 people caught on charges stemming from 14 corruption cases, the National Police Agency (NPA) said after a four-month nationwide crackdown on irregularities by the local entertainment industry.

Police put five of them under arrest for further probes.

In the detected cases, about 65 percent of the suspects were entertainment agency executives, TV producers and workers for industry interest groups while about 97 percent of the victims were celebrity aspirants, the NPA said.

Also among those booked without physical detention was a top executive of a local cable TV network who allegedly received 150 million won ($142,099) from 10 new singers from 2009 till recently in exchange for helping them appear on the TV channel's show programs, police said. They, however, did not give the name of the cable TV network.

"We conducted an intensive crackdown to combat crimes against celebrity aspirants, who are socially weak," a police official involved in the crackdown said, requesting not to be named.

Police will expand their investigation into corruption by entertainment industry figures, the official said.

fvisajobs