"Lee Soo-man Orders 'Inserting Tree Planting Lyrics in aespa Songs,' Revealed by SM CEO Lee Sung-soo"

Soo-man Lee's Tree Planting Delays aespa Comeback
14 Rounds of Soo-man Lee's Scandal Expos?s Announced

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] Following the acquisition of shares from former SM Chief Producer Lee Soo-man, HYBE has formed the SM board of directors centered on financial experts, and Lee Sung-soo, the current CEO of SM, has expressed an official stance.

Lee Sung-soo, Co-CEO of SM Entertainment / Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

On the 16th, Lee Sung-soo, co-CEO of SM, publicly targeted former Chief Producer Lee Soo-man through a YouTube channel, stating, "The reason for aespa's delayed comeback is due to Lee Soo-man's strange greed and stubbornness connected to his real estate business, and the producing that comes from this." In the video, Lee announced that he would expose Lee Soo-man's shortcomings in 14 installments.

In the video, Lee explained the problems SM had faced internally due to Lee Soo-man, dividing them into 14 items including offshore tax evasion suspicions.

Lee stated, "In 2019, Lee Soo-man established a company called 'CT Planning Limited' (CTP) in Hong Kong with a capital of 1 million dollars," adding, "CTP is a 100% personal company of Lee Soo-man and is the overseas version of Like Planning."

He also said, "(Lee Soo-man) does the same producing work as before, but only changed the contract structure abnormally by routing it through the overseas label and the overseas version of Like Planning, CTP," and added, "Lee Soo-man takes a 6% advance before the settlement between SM and the overseas label."

Lee further pointed out, "The contract between SM and Like Planning was not properly recognized as legitimate by the National Tax Service in both 2014 and 2021. As a result, SM had to pay tens to hundreds of billions of won in taxes," and criticized, "Isn't this strange structure involving overseas routing meant to evade the Korean National Tax Service's surveillance? It raises suspicions of typical offshore tax evasion by attributing profits to Hong Kong's CTP through a transaction structure that does not reflect reality."

He added, "The prior contract between CTP and the overseas label is completely unrelated to the 'SM-Like Planning' producing contract that ended last year and is still active and will continue to be maintained."

Lee also revealed that at the beginning of the new year, Lee Soo-man, through his close associates, demanded ▲a statement declaring that artists need Lee Soo-man ▲a contract with CTP for overseas album production ▲and measures to delay album releases until after April.

Additionally, he exposed that aespa's comeback was delayed due to Lee Soo-man's interest in tree planting.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Lee said, "aespa's new album release was scheduled around February 20," and claimed, "Lee Soo-man instructed the A&R (Artist and Repertoire) team and Director Yoo Young-jin to reflect tree planting, sustainability, and ESG (environment, social, governance) in the lyrics of all major songs released by SM."

Expos? video by Lee Seong-su, SM CEO.
[Photo by Lee Seong-su YouTube Channel]

He continued, "He ordered the group aespa, known for their carefully crafted worldview, to sing songs with lyrics reflecting tree planting, which does not suit them at all," emphasizing, "Words like 'Just Sustainability,' 'lower even by 1 degree,' 'coexistence,' and 'Greenism' appeared in parts of the lyrics, and in the early drafts, the word 'tree planting' appeared directly, which upset and made the aespa members emotional."

Lee explained that he personally requested to remove the direct word 'tree planting,' but due to such unreasonable orders, content that 'no one could sympathize with' was produced, leading to the decision to cancel the release of this song for aespa's sake.

Lee pointed out, "Behind the message advocating tree planting, sustainability, and ESG, and the call for pioneering new markets and cultural exchange, lies Lee Soo-man's desire related to real estate business rights," adding, "In fact, in some countries, ownership of land was requested, but only usage rights were possible, leading to situations where negotiations were ongoing."

Finally, Lee said, "Now, we at SM will start everything anew from the beginning," and urged, "That is 'SM 3.0.' Please listen to SM's music again."

On the same day, HYBE announced the composition of SM board candidates, including Lee Jae-sang, HYBE America CEO and global entertainment expert, along with seven others.

Along with the board composition, HYBE demanded from SM management ▲separation of CEO and board chairman roles ▲establishment of Outside Director Candidate Recommendation Committee, Internal Transactions Committee, Compensation Committee, and Governance Committee ▲securing diversity in the board composition (appointment of non-executive auditors, introduction of audit committee) ▲prohibition of appointing directors convicted of breach of trust or embezzlement ▲director duty clauses as good managers ▲codification of compliance officer system required for large listed companies in the articles of incorporation ▲introduction of electronic voting system to enhance shareholder rights.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.