Singer and actor Rain’s agency is preparing to file a defamation suit against Korean-American Daniel Kim who has accused the superstar of holding gambling debt.

In a phone call with Asia Economic Daily’s Sports Today on Tuesday, J.Tune CEO Cho Dong-won said, “We will start taking the legal steps as soon as we finish writing our complaint. A suit for defamation of character through dissemination of false information may be lodged today at the earliest.”

He then explained, “Rain and the company reached the conclusion that we can no longer sit still because we are angry and have been wrongly accused...... We will investigate into the truth and hold [the accuser] responsible through maximum help of the law.”

A week ago, Kim, an IT entrepeneur and promoter of Rain's Los Angeles concert in 2007, filed a lawsuit in the United States against Rain saying that he failed to pay him back 150,000 dollars he borrowed for gambling in Las Vegas three years ago.

Kim also said Rain has a "heavy gambling habit" and met with an immigrations officer to obtain a green card in the U.S. which would exempt him from serving Korea's two-year mandatory military duties.

J.Tune has dismissed the charges as "intolerable slander" and Kim attempting at "marring Rain's status by abusing his celebrity status and attempting to gain advantage in his suit over the cancellation of the LA show."

Rain's LA concert had failed to take place over several conflicts between Rain's agency and Kim's company which resulted in a lawsuit filed against the star, but a court had deemed Rain does not hold any responsibility for the cancellation.

Rain, whose real name is Jung Ji-hoon, has been considered one of the most successful Korean stars in the entertainment business throughout Asia since his debut in 2002.


Reporter : Cho Bum-ja anju1015@
Editor : Jessica Kim jesskim@
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