TS Entertainment Responds To Sleepy's Claim That He Wasn't Paid

TS Entertainment has issued another response to claims made by their former artist Sleepy.

Sleepy and TS Entertainment have been embroiled in a public legal dispute ever since it was revealed that Sleepy had left TS Entertainment after filing a request to suspend his contract earlier this year. TS Entertainment claimed that Sleepy embezzled funds from the agency, allegations that Sleepy has denied. Through Dispatch, Sleepy revealed documents and chat records between him and TS Entertainment that suggested he was being unfairly paid. TS Entertainment issued a response to that report with documents of their own. Most recently, Sleepy and TS Entertainment’s former CEO were interviewed on SBS’s “Night of Real Entertainment” to give their differing sides of the story.

On September 25, TS Entertainment issued an official response to Sleepy’s claims on “Night of Real Entertainment” and shared their own copies of chat records between Sleepy and agency staff members.

“We would like to state right away that the claims Sleepy made in yesterday’s broadcast are completely untrue,” the statement read. “As is evident from a conversation that Sleepy had with company board members at the time, Sleepy acknowledged that although he had hit the break-even point in August 2017 and made a profit, he still owed the company about 35 million won (about $29,200) because we had lent him money in advance. If Sleepy had not received this advance loan in order to meet living expenses during his rookie days, when he wasn’t making a profit, then of course he would have received his payments sooner. He knew that, so his statement that he didn’t know why he wasn’t being paid is a lie. We will soon reveal the details of Sleepy’s loans and payment breakdowns.”

TS Entertainment’s statement also directly addressed Sleepy’s claim that he had sent a text asking for 500,000 won (about $400) because he couldn’t meet living expenses.

“Apart from the advance loans we had already granted him, the agency paid for daily living expenses like Sleepy’s personal cell phone bills, hospital costs, Internet bills, maintenance costs, and personal insurance fees despite not being obligated to pay them. Sleepy’s personal cell phone bills alone were about 500,000 won (about $400) per month, 5 million won (about $4200) per year and 20 million won (about $16,700) for four years. Therefore, it’s difficult for us to understand why he would say that he begged us for 500,000 won.”

Finally, TS Entertainment responded to Sleepy’s claim that TS Entertainment knew about his sponsorship activities on Instagram. The statement read, “Sleepy told the agency, and also said on a previous broadcast, that his sponsorship was always paid in products. In yesterday’s broadcast, we heard for the first time that he was also being paid in cash. Moreover, we would like to state that our legal claim about embezzlement is not only about these social media sponsorship payments.”

The statement concluded, “Sleepy’s statements are all false and we regret that he is acting like this.”

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