T-ara Members Respond To Rumors About Group And Agency Banana Culture

T-ara members have posted an official statement in response to false information about their connection to the president of Banana Culture Wang Sicong.

On January 8, MBC’s “Section TV” and other media outlets reported that T-ara left MBK Entertainment, and said that Wang Sicong paid the agency 9 billion won (approximately $8,460,000) for the members’ promotions in China and gifted each member a supercar. Banana Culture has managed the group’s activities in China in the past.

In response to these reports, T-ara’s Qri, Eunjung, Hyomin, and Jiyeon released an official statement via their personal Instagram accounts. The statement reads as follows:

“Hello. This is T-ara’s Qri, Eunjung, Hyomin, and Jiyeon. We don’t have a company to act on our behalf, so after contemplating and gathering courage, we decided to inform you here.

“Regarding the articles reporting that the members received supercars and 9 billion won, we personally contacted Wang Sicong (Banana Culture) through Weibo and received a formal response that the reports are false and totally groundless.

“We hope that the agency and all of the employees who worked hard with us since our debut will not be negatively affected by this groundless rumor. The four members’ official position is that we hope we can continue to greet you with the name ‘T-ara’ and hope all of this can be peacefully resolved. Thank you for reading.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BdsSn53D7mu/

Wang Sicong also released a formal statement via Weibo after T-ara sent him a message asking, “Has Banana Culture gifted T-ara members a luxury car? Has Banana Culture given MBK Entertainment 9 billion won? We will wait for your response.”

Wang Sicong’s response statement reads:

“1. What the members mentioned in Weibo (9 billion won contract fee, gifting each person a supercar) is not true.

2. All of the information reported by some news outlets is false. We suffered damage due to these reports and are considering exercising our legal rights.

3. T-ara’s contract with the Chinese management company and MBK Entertainment expired on December 31, 2017, and was not renewed.

4. During the duration of the contract, T-ara members actively cooperated.”

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