Lack of Rain brings lawsuit
Local investors who watched their good-faith money wash away in a canceled Rain concert at Aloha Stadium have sued the Korean pop star and his promoters, charging racketeering and fraud.
Hawaii-based Click Entertainment and President Seung Su Lee have retained Honolulu attorney Eric Seitz to handle the suit. Seitz's office confirmed that the suit has been filed and the defendants have been served.
The defendants include entertainer Jung Ji-Hoon -- whose stage name Rain triggered a U.S. trademark lawsuit filed by a Beatles tribute band of the same name -- and Korean promoters JYP Entertainment, Star(M) Entertainment and Revolution Entertainment.
Although the Korean companies are involved in a confusing welter of overlapping responsibilities and contractual demands, Click alleges that they conspired to promote U.S. concerts that were never going to occur, as well as create a dummy U.S. corporation, Revolution USA, to take the legal heat. Their goal, claims Click, was to manipulate the South Korean stock market by overhyping their client.
Jung unilaterally canceled all his U.S. concerts.
In addition to a $500,000 deposit paid to Revolution, Click "rented Aloha Stadium, issued and sold tickets, obtained and shipped all of the specified staging equipment and incurred enormous costs to produce the Hawaii concert," according to the suit. Estimated losses are more than $1 million.
