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Active: 599 users

Sonic sued for fraud (Update Jan 11)

Forum Index > SC2 General
408 CommentsPost a Reply
1 2 3 4 5 19 20 21 Next All
Thouhastmail
Profile Joined March 2015
Korea (North)876 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-01-11 05:05:29
December 19 2015 14:04 GMT
#1
MOD EDIT: Update Jan 11 2016
On January 11 2016 09:50 RCCar wrote:
Update on sonic: http://gall.dcinside.com/starcraft_new/4070963
Fraud confirmed.
Sonic currently on the lam
Sbenu currently the hot keyword of korean portal sites
On January 11 2016 12:09 jinyung2 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 11 2016 12:03 BeStFAN wrote:
On January 11 2016 11:48 jinyung2 wrote:
On January 11 2016 11:19 Cascade wrote:
On January 11 2016 09:50 RCCar wrote:
Update on sonic: http://gall.dcinside.com/starcraft_new/4070963
Fraud confirmed.
Sonic currently on the lam
Sbenu currently the hot keyword of korean portal sites

:o

Can someone translate, or at least a bit more elaborate summary?

i just started doing a rough summary, just asking to make sure its not wasted effort and someone whos better at translating is already doing one?


horangnabi please

very rough summaries/translations of the dcinside link. its a summary some guy did of the tv segment that came out about sbenu

1. starts with one factory executive in the nude (t/n: on article I read about this guy, he basically went to sbenu hq took off his clothes and was yelling "give me my money!")
money he is owed 2,800,000,000 Won ($2,318,456 USD)

2. this factory and many others related businesses in busan are all in danger of bankruptcy.

3. the guy who was heard in phone recordings (found here: http://blog.naver.com/sbenu2016) comes out (he's a sbenu investor/branch owner) :
- after the overstock/clearance stores showed up he was selling like 0~3 shoes a day.
- the branch stores sell shoes at 790,000 Won but clearance stores sell same shoe for 390,000 Won. customer come get mad come yell at him and demand refund
- some dude who bought sbenu shoes at regular price gets mad saying he paid so much money for shitty shoes

4. sonic comes out:
- comes out with the mosaic voice change identity hiding state you see most criminals show up on tv
- says same thing he said in wikitree interview "clerance store merchandise is not from us, that's all 하이키/highkey(?) (management agency) doing"
- mbc checks in with clearance store and they tell them "we got these shoes from sbenu"
- next day they contact sonic again and he says "i didnt know so i said i dont know!"

5. reason why branch stores cant close business
- this detail wasnt included in the 부산공장 (t/n: this guy is highkey ceo's son from what i know) online leaks (t/n: there were a ton regarding phone calls, pictures, legal documents suing sonic, log of all the different cars leased with sbenu money etc..)
- the stock left in branch stores have been seized
- branch owners cant even sell the stuff they have so they cant close down the business
- money invested to open branch minimum 30,000,000 Won to sometimes 200,000,000 Won. also when branch sells one 990,000 Won shoe, sbenu gets 540,000 Won
- but they are selling the same shoe at clearance for 490,000 Won

6. sbenu management director comes out:
- says same stuff sonic been saying blaming highkey saying they seized the funds
- but does say that the cause of all this is crappy management from parties involved with sbenu
- even this sbenu director is saying all the money they wasted on marketting kinda backfired on them
- summarizer points out that this director says "this company" instead of "our company" so he seems like a third party (t/n: the 부산공장 guy who was posting details online said there were a bunch of new people sonic brought in to try and clean up the mess and cover tracks and stuff)
- says sonic sold all his supercars

in between you see one of his fancy super cars (부산공장 added this picture in this post http://gall.dcinside.com/board/view/?id=starcraft_new&no=4071302&page=1&exception_mode=recommend showing 14 different cars leased using sbenu money but a lot of them were under a third party company name) and articles saying how well his business is doing, and how much profit he plans to make in 2015

7. lies that are snowballing out of control
- since october sonics been saying he brought in some big company rep who would invest in sbenu so the money is coming
- turns out this was a lie
- mbc contacted this big company, says they dont have that guy employed and there was no discussion regarding investment
- the management director says they were tricked by this big company rep for 3 months
- dude looked real mad, seems like a victim

8. conclusion and next step(?) (t/n: i think this last part is a lot of personal opinion from the guy who wrote this summary)
- even in this situation, factory and branch owners dont want the brand to fail
- of course, if the brand fails and dies out then all these ppl lose their jobs
- but its progressed too far, past the point of return
- personally i think they should reveal all the evidence lower the cost of merchandise, everyone buy a pair or two out of pity or government or big business intervenes and we send the shoe abroad
- of course the person responsible for this mess should be punished accordingly and spend the rest of his life repaying his debts. (t/n: some last end bits kinda poking fun at the situation of sonic collecting pity balloons of afreeca has his loan shark count the money)

im sure theres ppl who are better at korean that can point out any mistakes i made in translation. of course this is a summary some other guy wrote but i read a lot of the indvidual stuff thats been surfacing the past couple weeks and this seems to line up a lot with what I know

edit: i dunno why but when ever scandulous shit happens its just so entertaining :S

:D


Shoutouts to RCCar who also translated the above.
On January 11 2016 13:58 jinyung2 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 11 2016 12:44 Cascade wrote:
Thanks both translators!

So the main thing he did wrong was to sell overprices shoes? And collecting debts that he couldn't pay off... So the fraud was against the store owners that had to pay sbenu to sell the shoes at unreasonable high price?

from my understanding its like this

1. sonic spends a fortune on advertisement and marketing, ppl see IU AOA and ppl in drama wearing sbenu shoes and they start to sponsor many different esports stuff (sc2 lol bw etc) it seems really successful and gains rep

2. sbenu goes to factory and uses their rep as some kind of giant super growing company and asks to began shoe production and signs contracts saying funds will be delivered in due time. the highkey ceo's son made public online a bunch of different written contracts sonic stamped saying this will be promised that will be promised etc. but sbenu continues to lag it and blames highkey the management agency saying they have the money. factory has no choice but to sell shoes they have stocked up for cheap. sbenu comes in and buys this posing as a third party for very cheap.

3. investors are like "wow we totally want a piece of this action" so they invest heavily, 100+ stores nation wide, minimum ~30k$ investment up to like ~200k$

4. sbenu supplies (probably also runs) clearance overstock store with shoes they scammed from factory as third party and sells the same shoes they sell at branch stores for 40~60% discounted prices. sbenu for a while stated they did not give these stores they shoes but this was found out to be a lie in the phone recordings 부산공장 posted online. of course what happens is branch stores get fuckedddd people like intotherainbow was extremely mad at sonic cus he was one of the investors and he put in all of his own savings, borrowed money from his family and from his sister to invest in a sbenu branch store and it went out of business VERY fast. 부산공장 mentioned there were some who even took their own lives and a ton of other victims who's lives are being destroyed by this scam

5. now according to very recent stuff that 부산공장 posted on dc, apparently the money sbenu makes from these they launder through some kind of unnamed entertainment agency.


also I read that everything sbenu hasnt been able to get trademark rights since june 2014, because

A)
[image loading]

their logo is like 90% copied from something else

B) theres a shoe brand called SOBENU
[image loading]
and they were basically like "yo your brand name is too similar to ours" and did some legal stuff to which sbenu gave no response





http://news.kbs.co.kr/news/view.do?ncd=3201218

"The chairman of SBENU, a fashion company, is being investigated by the police for fraud.

Today, 'The society for SBENU Victims' held press conferences to announce that they would be taking the case to the court, to try to demand compensation for the delayed payment of the bill *.

... Mr. Hwang, CEO of SBENU, stated that he`ll counter-charge SBENU`s agency for defalcating bills that were supposed to go factories, insisting that he got circumstantial evidences. "

*It is known that Sonic did not pay 30.3 billion Won to the manufacturing facilities. (approximately $25.59m)

http://www.asiatoday.co.kr/view.php?key=20151217010012408

"... The problem is, in spite of all these external developments, The company’s financial position is shaky; Though Mr. Hwang announced that SBENU got 50 bill. Won ($42.22m) in sales last year, actually it earned 10.4 bill. Won($8.78m) in sales and posted an operating loss of 210 mill. Won ($170K), according to mediumsized enterprise information system."




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Though it`s not certain whether SBENU is going bankrupt, this will definitely influence SBENU`s sponsorship in esports,
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"Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike"
Clubfan
Profile Blog Joined May 2013
Germany913 Posts
December 19 2015 14:12 GMT
#2
That sounds pretty bad...
LiquipediaLickyPiddy manager
GTR
Profile Blog Joined September 2004
51446 Posts
December 19 2015 14:13 GMT
#3
unfortunate news to hear.
hopefully all things go well for sonic but we just have to wait and see.
Commentator
SmykuToronto
Profile Joined October 2014
Poland269 Posts
December 19 2015 14:13 GMT
#4
Depressing shit all week long.
Can't someone announce monthly tournament for top KESPA players or something?
Penev
Profile Joined October 2012
28475 Posts
December 19 2015 14:14 GMT
#5
Oh dear, this is not good..
I Protoss winner, could it be?
Clonester
Profile Joined August 2014
Germany2808 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-12-19 14:18:40
December 19 2015 14:18 GMT
#6
To fully understand:
The factories, that produce SBENU products, say, that SBENU has to pay them an open bill of 30.3 Billion WON. Mr Hwang, CEO of SBENU, says, they wanted to pay, but the agency (bank?) fucked up and he, Mr Hwang, has evidence, that it is not his fault, but the fault of the agency who had to send the payment.

"It is known that Sonic did not pay 30.3 billion Won". Who knows that? The public by news? And from where do they got the knowledge?

The last sentence has clearly alot of money errors: Mr. Wong says SBENU made 50 bil. Won in sales ($42.22). You mean Million $??. And the gouvernment says the company made 210k Won loss (you mean 210Million Won??) because after you say 210k Won are (170k $). And the latest number is 104 Bil. Won and you state that are 8.78M $ in sales.
But when 30.3 Billion Won are 25.59 Million $, 50 Billionen Won can be 42.22 Million $, but then 104 bil. Won cant be 8,78 mil. $. That should be then over 84 mil. $.

I am confused and my text just gave me even more of that.
Bomber, Attacker, DD, SOMEBODY, NiKo, Nex, Spidii
Thouhastmail
Profile Joined March 2015
Korea (North)876 Posts
December 19 2015 14:18 GMT
#7
Korean SC2 fans already knew it for some degree, since the last year.

"Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike"
Dodgin
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
Canada39254 Posts
December 19 2015 14:19 GMT
#8
On December 19 2015 23:18 Thouhastmail wrote:
Korean SC2 fans already knew it for some degree, since the last year.



Knew he was being sued or knew he was screwing people over?
Taf the Ghost
Profile Joined December 2010
United States11751 Posts
December 19 2015 14:21 GMT
#9
"defalcating". Rare I come across a new word in an article like this. It's really sad in this type of story.

Please just be messy business stupidity than anything big.
Thouhastmail
Profile Joined March 2015
Korea (North)876 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-12-19 14:37:50
December 19 2015 14:37 GMT
#10
On December 19 2015 23:18 Clonester wrote:
I am confused and my text just gave me even more of that.


corrected it. I never liked maths.

On December 19 2015 23:19 Dodgin wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 19 2015 23:18 Thouhastmail wrote:
Korean SC2 fans already knew it for some degree, since the last year.



Knew he was being sued or knew he was screwing people over?


Financial issues.
"Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike"
Clonester
Profile Joined August 2014
Germany2808 Posts
December 19 2015 14:41 GMT
#11
He expanded really really fast in the last 2 years, just like StarUps usually do it. But in this state, Start-Ups allways make alot of losing money and have to find new investors to carry on till you reach the black numbers sometimes. Or even sell the company while it still loses money. But Sonik seemed to have larger problems to find new investors and thus has payment problems.
Bomber, Attacker, DD, SOMEBODY, NiKo, Nex, Spidii
Elentos
Profile Blog Joined February 2015
55511 Posts
December 19 2015 14:48 GMT
#12
It's going to be important to see how this develops. It might turn out that it's mostly harmless overall and just sounds bad, it might turn out to seriously hurt the company and all its eSports teams...
Every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes.
Wrath
Profile Blog Joined July 2014
3174 Posts
December 19 2015 14:51 GMT
#13
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO


NOT THE BROOD WAR SAVIOR!!!
TheScriptan
Profile Joined June 2014
Lithuania152 Posts
December 19 2015 15:31 GMT
#14
This week has been so depressing for the whole StarCraft community...
OtherWorld
Profile Blog Joined October 2013
France17333 Posts
December 19 2015 15:34 GMT
#15
Uh oh
RIP the whole of eSports?
Used Sigs - New Sigs - Cheap Sigs - Buy the Best Cheap Sig near You at www.cheapsigforsale.com
DarkPlasmaBall
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States44276 Posts
December 19 2015 15:39 GMT
#16
On December 19 2015 23:51 WrathSCII wrote:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO


NOT THE BROOD WAR SAVIOR!!!


Is this the Sonic Starleague guy?

This is terrible news
"There is nothing more satisfying than looking at a crowd of people and helping them get what I love." ~Day[9] Daily #100
Elentos
Profile Blog Joined February 2015
55511 Posts
December 19 2015 15:42 GMT
#17
On December 20 2015 00:39 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 19 2015 23:51 WrathSCII wrote:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO


NOT THE BROOD WAR SAVIOR!!!


Is this the Sonic Starleague guy?

This is terrible news

Yes, also owner of Team SBENU. Although IIRC he stopped doing the BW Starleague to focus more on his business?
Every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes.
Thouhastmail
Profile Joined March 2015
Korea (North)876 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-12-19 15:46:34
December 19 2015 15:44 GMT
#18
well, I have never liked Sonic since he defended Savior.

However, I understand your bitterness about the news.
"Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike"
Elentos
Profile Blog Joined February 2015
55511 Posts
Last Edited: 2015-12-19 15:49:07
December 19 2015 15:48 GMT
#19
On December 20 2015 00:44 Thouhastmail wrote:
well, I have never liked Sonic since he had defended Savior.

However, I understand your bitterness about the news.

Well, I don't care about Sonic himself. But if his company goes broke, his eSports teams will be in trouble. And those players I do care about. I mean, especially with the new WCS changes, what are the odds SBENU would find a new big sponsor for their team if the company actually collapsed? Probably not too great considering Startale was struggling forever to find a sponsor to begin with.
Every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes.
Sinistro
Profile Joined February 2012
Brazil684 Posts
December 19 2015 16:10 GMT
#20
Damn, if his company goes down, is there anyone else to keep BW up?
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