Talent Head Arrested Over Suicide

SEOUL -- Local police have arrested Jason Kim, the head of management agency the Contents Entertainment, on Friday on charges of coercing, blackmailing and conducting physical violence on his client, the late actress Jang Ja-yeon, who committed suicide in March.

Kim, 40, was hiding in Japan since December until the Japanese police captured and repatriated him to Korea lastweek of 7/6-10 week. The police concluded that Kim is responsible for forcing Jang into entertaining and drinking with reporters and executives of financial firms. The agency chief was charged with sending threatening text messages and hitting Jang with a plastic bottle. The police, however, were not able to establish that Jang was forced into providing sexual favors for any of them.

Aside from Kim, the police also requested an arrest warrant and indicted without detention six other people relating to the Jang scandal.

The news of Jang's suicide, a starlet from the hit TV drama "Boys Over Flower," became a huge scandal in the local entertainment industry after Jang's suicide letter implied that she had provided sexual favors for members of the Korean media at her agent's urging.

– Nielsen Business Media