Actor Kim Soo Hyun is under new public and industry fire—not for his acting, but for financial improprieties allegedly connected to his agency, Gold Medalist.
Kim signed with Gold Medalist in 2019 after serving out his mandatory military service. The agency, which had originally been singled out for its good management, has since been criticized amid concerns over its ownership and internal accounting.
The official records indicate that Gold Medalist is under the sole ownership of Bareun No.2 Investment Association.
Nonetheless, sources accuse the company of being run in practice by Kim's older brother, Lee Ro Be (also Lee Sarang), while Kim functions basically as the agency's showcase talent.
"Things don't add up," stated one insider close to the agency's internal setup.
Bareun No.2's legitimacy is also questionable. The organization owns not only Gold Medalist but also a KOSDAQ-listed e-learning company that is facing police and tax investigation for stock manipulation and tax evasion—charges the firm has officially denied.
A trip to the site increased doubts. Bareun No.2's registered headquarters in Seoul's Jangwi-dong was a humble three-story building.
The second floor, registered as the association's office, was taken up by a medical equipment firm with no obvious signage to suggest the presence of a major entertainment organization.
Account books gathered from Gold Medalist's audit reports further raised concerns. Between 2020 and 2024, settlements to artists amounted to only ₩670 million KRW (around $483,000 USD).
Settlement payments were actually lower than the agency's entertainment and meeting costs in certain years.
An official of the agency explained, "Artist payments are included in service revenue costs. It is misleading to calculate settlements solely based on the 'payment commission' line in our statements."
Nonetheless, the financial community notes that such large agencies release detailed settlement amounts publicly in most cases, and there is a problem with lack of transparency here.
Comparable industry statistics only fan suspicion:
EDAM Entertainment (IU): ₩26.3B (2023), ₩33.6B (2024)
ADOR (NewJeans): Avg. ₩9.3B per member a year
Hook Entertainment (Lee Seung Gi): 79% of revenue paid to artists for four years
Gold Medalist's 2024 sales reached ₩20.0 billion KRW (around $14.4 million USD), fueled primarily by the popularity of tvN's "Queen of Tears" and Kim's 16 endorsement deals. Artist settlements, however, only reached ₩2.70 billion KRW ($1.95 million USD).
With increasing financial scrutiny and investigations reaching into Gold Medalist's wider business network, the agency is increasingly under pressure to explain. But the silence from Kim Soo Hyun continues.
