EPTLet me introduce myself briefly, I go by Anemoneya/모네야. I'm Korean-American. Being bilingual enabled me to absorb a lot more information from both Korean and English sources than anyone else. In that well known Azuwho thread, I may have been the most involved poster besides the OP. I've been actively researching about Azubu related stuff since then, often tipping Korean journalists about my findings, which ended up getting published. Hell, my story with Azubu goes wayyyy back. When I went to watch lol championship game from OGN at Yongsan e-sports stadium about 3 years ago, OGN staffs asked audiences in line to sign up at Azubu.com. I can still remember that those who signed up got gifted a can Redbull. I was like "What the hell is Azubu?" That was the beginning. That was even before Azubu started to sponsor lol teams.
While I contributed a lot to Azuwho thread, I realize that I shared too much skepticism that were not backed up by a solid evidence. Today I want to try to fix it, but I'm going to share other information and ask those involved to confirm it when the time is right.
All those gossips about money laundering... I may be the one responsible for it (at least in the western community). Such rumor got started in Korean websites first, and I delivered them here to TL forum with my subjective opinions on them.
Let's recap why such rumors got started:
1. There was a rumor that Azubu HQ in Berlin was pretty much empty office, while Azubu-korean division being the actual HQ.
2. Fact: Kim Seok ki was famous in Korea for successfully earning a lot of money using paper company. He was the first to use this technique in Korea.
3. Fact: Kim Seok ki has a lot of paper companies, and one of his paper companies owned trademark of "Azubu".
4. Fact: Paper companies are often used for money laundering or to minimize the tax.
5. Therefore, people somehow came to conclusion that Azubu was established to do shady stuff by Kim.
6. When Azubu failed, people including me started to say "omg expected! money launders!", etc.
I'm not a business major so I don't know well about how money is laundered, but after reading stuff on reddit/TL, I thought accusing of money laundering was just an over-speculation.
When Azubu closed its Korean office and fired all its employees, an insider(fired employee) tipped off a journalist. It was like this: "Kim wasn't trying to do shady stuff as the rumors say. He really thought he could make e-sports scene bigger and make big bucks out of it. The execution didn't go well and the plan simply failed". This is unofficial, and I didn't believe it at that time. Now come to think of it, it sounds likely and I think fired worker wouldn't need to lie about stuff anyway.
Am I here to defend Kim/Azubu/Clauf then? No way. I'm just saying at this time money laundering is not likely and we need to focus on more sensitive issue, "Who's actually running Clauf? Why can there be an (ethical) problem?"
Before I talk about Azubu/Clauf, let's go over Kim Seok Ki's profile
(source: http://newstapa.com/news/20134598 )
1. Kim profited $66 million US dollars off his scam and fled to Hong Kong.
2. The company he was at was left with debt of $420 million US dollars.
3. The government had to spend over billion dollars in dealing with this.
4. In 2007, Korea and Hong Kong signed Extradition law.
5. It is believed that Kim moved to UK because of this Extradition law being effective in HK.
6. He is still WANTED MAN in Korea. He's living peacefully in luxury mansion in London/Berlin, driving rolls royce, doing businesses through sapinda, paper companies(under his wife, son's name)
7. While Korean prosecution department is still looking for him, he remotely doing business in Korea. Very bold move.
8. One of them(RNTS) is confirmed, the other(Azubu) is suspected (more to come)
9. Newstapa investigated about RNTS media, and found out Kim was hidden owner of this company. This was discussed before, but they mention that while CEO was different person, Kim gave all the orders regarding decision making and management by conference call, video calls, and he had all the powers about appointment/firing workers. Because he is a wanted criminal, he can't be publicly be an acting CEO. He does business by appointing his man as CEO and giving orders. The money is invested from his Sapinda group and his wife,son's paper company, so his name never appears on paper.
I think this is how he is running Azubu and Clauf, too.
For Azubu, we have some testimonies from Ex-Azubu workers. Please read 2 pages of this thread here:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/406145-esports-contributor-azuwho?page=24#478
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/406145-esports-contributor-azuwho?page=25
those are page 24 and 25, quoting the conversation between me, LightningStrikes (Ex-Azubu Korea), and Coraliine(Ex-Azubu Berlin),
Pictures of 3 individuals who work at clauf are here: http://clauf.com/
That third guy, CMO, is from OGN.
The Azubu Korea (former?) director, Lee Hyunggeun, and him are buddies.
Dr. Kim Seokki is the investor, everyone knew him at the Korea branch, he was akin to God.
I don't think a single Korean there knew of Lars Windhorst, or Silverio Park.
Some Koreans were sent to Berlin in 2011-12, they might know Park.
I really do think that they wanted to be good, but the director, Lee, is just a complete moron and extremely xenophobic.
The company had no direction, would work all hours of the day to produce nothing.
Just a ridiculous company.
That third guy, CMO, is from OGN.
The Azubu Korea (former?) director, Lee Hyunggeun, and him are buddies.
Dr. Kim Seokki is the investor, everyone knew him at the Korea branch, he was akin to God.
I don't think a single Korean there knew of Lars Windhorst, or Silverio Park.
Some Koreans were sent to Berlin in 2011-12, they might know Park.
I really do think that they wanted to be good, but the director, Lee, is just a complete moron and extremely xenophobic.
The company had no direction, would work all hours of the day to produce nothing.
Just a ridiculous company.
This makes me think Kim was really the God in Azubu (still is..probably) and it explains how Silverio Park got fired like that. There was also a comment about seeing Kim in Berlin office.
So what now? I'm pretty sure Kim is running Clauf in the same way.
It explains where and how easily Clauf is getting money from:
Sapinda is not investing money in esports to get a return. Kim is using Sapinda to fund his company while not exposing his name.
Sucky management? Yeah, if CEO doesn't really have a power and is remotely controlled....while the real CEO is not even in the office/scene!
Of course, there is no evidence that Kim Seok Ki is the actual owner of Clauf. There are many small evidences leading to there, but still... That's why I wrote this post.
Clauf employees, or Ex-Claufs, If you ever saw this guy in the office or heard about him running Clauf, please let us know when it's time you are to speak up.
Pics of Kim: These are 10 years old. He might look little different nowdays.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/xGesww5.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/0tMT10B.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/GXF5WUx.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/J27VGbu.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/AXg6jdC.jpg)
If the money is just invested by Sapinda group, that's OK in regards to ethics. While Lars and his buddies had failures in the past, declared bankruptcy, and are shady people according to article by Richard A. Lewis, they are not current criminals. There's no problem for them to run business and appear in public. However, Kim is different. He is a wanted criminal who still on the run. That's why he doesn't appear in public or run the company directly.
Some people here say dirty money is welcomed as long as it's used to grow e-sport scene. Would you say the same when the wanted criminal on the run is the head of your company? He is not a serial killer, but his act caused a lot of people to lose jobs, had impact on financial crisis of Korea which led to many suicides I heard.
If you saw Kim at Clauf, if you know he is the investor, if you know Kim is really the one running Clauf, please speak up and share the information(hopefully torte and frodan sees this). It would be right to warn people and keep others away from working under such criminal in the future. (too bad there's no bounty on him)
EDIT: uploaded pics instead of link
