Hopefully this closes the door with fines to be paid and time served. This week it was revealed that Jang Geun Seok‘s mother, who was investigated for tax evasion, tried and convicted last year in 2021, has lost her appeal of that conviction. It stemmed from the underreporting of income earned by Jang Geun Seok through his Japanese activities and other overseas income, and at that time she served as the managing director of his one-person agency TreeJ. It was reported that she would withdraw money overseas as well to avoid paying taxes on it. I’m oversimplifying the details but suffice to say the South Korean government was not happy with it after a full investigation and she was charged and convicted of the tax evasion to the tune of a $2.7M USD fine for her personally with a 2 year and 6 month prison sentence (suspended for 4 years), and the agency TreeJ was fined $1.4M USD. Through this entire process Jang Geun Seok said that he did not know what his mother did and she managed TreeJ so he was always unaware that the corporate entity was underreporting taxes. He left the agency already and is now with another agency.
It’s always been interesting to me how despite the career trajectory of his other peers or similar-aged stars (for example, it’s shocking to me Kim Jae Wook is now doing romcoms after years of fans wanting to see him in them!) Jang Geun Suk hasn’t been active in a lot of productions. I still believe that his most mainstream/well-known performance was in You’re Beautiful, and that he’s a great actor with a lot of presence. But the extended breaks that he takes, the subpar small-screen dramas that he’s been in (i.e. Love Rain) have been surprising. I know he’s been dealing many of his own personal issues recently, and I suppose that this is another example of why he hasn’t been really active lately.
Since he finished his military service, he’s been active with his music career in Japan mostly. He released three Japanese singles last year and his upcoming Japanese album will be released on March 30th. I do enjoy his acting a lot, but I also really enjoy his music so I’m happy with all the music he’s released recently. ^^
He’s gotten a head-start too since his career started in his teens. I’m glad he’s following the beat of his own drummer and doing a variety of things, but it’s a bummer that he doesn’t consistently do dramas. As you said, he does have a lot of presence and a great speaking voice. But I bet the time he takes away from dramas probably means he less in casting directors’ consciousness.
Sad for him. Seems like he’s the only 87 liner not able to maintain his career post military. He hasn’t made any movie/drama since 2018. That’s 4 years ago. Even Kwak Si Yang another 87 liner who’s less famous has overtaken him. Similarly YSH is in the same boat. He’s in talks to join YG agency after leaving Story J. YG is home to Jang Ki Yong, Kang Dong Won, Lee Soo Hyuk, Yoo In Na and Lee Sung Kyung. Hope YSH would not have to compete against JKY and LSH for roles as both of them are really tall and good-looking.
He focuses on his music a lot as well as actively performing.So while you may not see him acting he is writing and performing. He is blessed to be multi talented with music probably his main passion.
He left the one man agency. What’s left of the company then. Interesting choice of word to absolve him from the issue.
This story started in 2014 and was dragged up to 2021. His fans know that the regular media coverage of the different stages of trials and appeals stopped Jang Keun Suk’s comeback t Korea at least 3 times.
Luckily his Japanese activities are still going strong and he is preparing his 5th full length-album to be released at 30th of March.
JKS left his mother’s agency in 2018 and now he is under another one, which hopefully will support his work better.
For those, who still doubt the fact that he didn’t know about the money overseas, the original articles, published this Sunday, explain that the court ruled his mother as the only person, who knew this. She was the president of Tree J from 2009 and controlled his career and earnings, which led to some funny (but actually sad stories) JKS shared with his fans about asking permission to buy a car or overcharging his phone bill in Paris.
Saw knetz comments about this matter
So apparently he and his parents are known for being bad…..
So goodbye to him ??
It’s like a curse on this site. Yoo. eun Hye, Jang Keun Suk, etch all have terrible ending that iresurrectable
I see you are ready to badmouth a person based on netizen opinions?
Goodbye to you too