DID OH MY GIRL'S REPS LIE ABOUT WHY THEY WERE DETAINED AT THE AIRPORT? 👀

[kwikimart.livejournal.com]

A story circulated by managers of K-pop group Oh My Girl — that performers were held at LAX for 15 hours last week after authorities accused them of coming to the United States to engage in prostitution — is patently untrue, a federal official told L.A. Weekly tonight.

The official, who did not want his name used, said the young women were never suspected of prostitution.


The group's management firm, WM Entertainment, said in a widely distributed statement that after after arriving at LAX from South Korea Dec. 9 members were held by U.S. customs officials because they believed the women were possibly "working women."

"They were mistaken as 'working women' (prostitutes) which the U.S. has a big issue with right now," the statement read.

The firm said that the members' luggage contained "outfits" that set off alarms with authorities. Plus, the firm said, when asked what relationship they had to each other, the women answered, "sisters," which in Korean culture can mean close friends, but which authorities found strange.

However, the official who spoke to us said the only thing that set off alarms was the members' lack of a necessary performance visa. He said that federal authorities determined the group was here to perform and thus needed that specific visa.

Managers said the act came here for a photo shoot and something called Unforgettable 2015. It's not clear to us if that was a scheduled performance.

Our source said federal officials believed the members of Oh My Girl had been coached to say they had arrived stateside for purposes of tourism, which would not have required a performance visa.

Essentially, the official said, the women lied, and when feds discovered that they didn't have a necessary visa, they were instructed to catch the first flight back to South Korea.

In fact, he said, the members were not held for 15 hours: They simply had to wait for their flight.

The statement issued by WM Entertainment attracted headlines far and wide for an otherwise under-the-radar act. Oh My Girl is now famous — or infamous.

That, the federal official said, might have been the whole point of this saga.

Damn. They could have won 'Most Shameless MediaPlay' at the Flop Line awards if this had come out sooner smh.
So Omona, what's your favorite lie in Kpop? Mine so far is this and that UKiss guy with his bra thing.

mods: sorry for the other post, i reposted the pic!

TYFYT OMONA



XOXO

SOURCE
LA Weekly: Feds Say They Never Suspected K-Pop Performers of Prostitution

Comments

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

i mean i feel like this was pretty obvious, the customs are never gonna outright say 'we can't let you in because we think you're sex workers'
idk why the agency even bothered with that statement in the first place. the reactions from the knetz were generally criticizing the agency as well, for being dumb fucks getting the girls wrong visa and not sending an interpreter along with them.

[chastainy.livejournal.com]

we need a "messy management" tag

[yakuniku-8.livejournal.com]

Yes

[mangomuffins.livejournal.com]

the desperation to get these girls famous :( it's not gonna happen

[mya13.livejournal.com]

wm has been trying to get OMG famous in the worst way even before this. remember that article released about how a member was anorexic? they really need to tone it down a bit....and by a bit i mean a lot.

[justkyhdding.livejournal.com]

oh shit i completely forgot about that

[lulufairybubble.livejournal.com]

Wow their company is really doing them wrong. By any means necessary,huh?

[moomoo-moonstar.livejournal.com]

Aw man, what a mess. It even worked to a point, I even saw it make BBC News of all places. There's gotta be a better way to get noticed.

[madielou.livejournal.com]

wow....how embarrassing of the company.
and for the girls, to have to deal with such a shit PR team.

[fallendaydreams.livejournal.com]

well that's... embarrassing

[justkyhdding.livejournal.com]

I just submitted this, but OP your post is prettier~

WM didn't get the right visas, plain and simple. What this has blown up into though, is incredibly disappointing

[kwikimart.livejournal.com]

Aww I'm sure your post was pretty too!

IA about the way their management handled this. It's really, really sketchy and if it had backfired or their suspicious actions had made the Feds wary then they might have risked more than just embarrassing the group.

[kwikimart.livejournal.com]

Lmaooo why do record labels/management in Kpop sabotage their own artists with shit like this? I just...how tragic

Competition in kpop is fierce but it's not worth lying about the FBI especially if you're a poc! Wtf is wrong with their management?

[yohan94.livejournal.com]

apparently this is a common thing among performers (JYP did it w the wonder girls) , just that WM was caught, stupid.

[iznanassi.livejournal.com]

I'm screaming ohhhhhhhhhh my gooooooood

[ladybee12.livejournal.com]

honestly that's pretty sick. esp since there are legit children in this group, poor girls.

[atopworld.livejournal.com]

Very true and disturbing.

[atopworld.livejournal.com]

whythefuckyoulyin.vine

[elisaorange.livejournal.com]

Annoying, so their management just made up their own story? Gtfo, byeee.

[torontok.livejournal.com]

I mean we all pretty much suspected that WM had been sloppy with paperwork and this proves it.

[typhlogirl.livejournal.com]

how fucking embarrassing, way to throw the girls under the bus jfc

~~any press is good press~~ etc

[stephantasm.livejournal.com]

Shadyyyyyyy

[winged-monster.livejournal.com]

Yeah. They were totally being shady with this. Apparently, you have to be a performer,under your current group or name, for at least one year before you can obtain a performer visa in the states. WM knew the group couldn't get the right paperwork to perform. They should have left the performance out of their schedule.

When JYJ left SM, they were considered a new performance group. They didn't realize the one year rule still applied to them when they scheduled a paid performance in the US. They still came without the performance visa but refunded everyone their money, since they couldn't make money off of the performance.

[diamondroad17.livejournal.com]

Monsta X performed this year at KCon though, and they debuted this year. Is it because they don't get paid for this gig?

[timetobegin.livejournal.com]

Agreed that this was what most of us suspected to have happened. Visa problems happen alot in Kpop don't they? Management, get your shit together.

[sayuridoll.livejournal.com]

@company

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

I was waiting for this

[slowitdownbaby.livejournal.com]

These poor girls :(

[aurellee.livejournal.com]

I mean, since you going with a tourist Visas, you might as well beforehand makes up the lies to go with it when customs asked. There are so many that would fit "we're a group of girls from an all girl school on vacation for a project, shooting calendars for our school." etc etc, there are so many excuses you can make that is half truths half lies that customs will let through. Just don't be fucking suspicious and not confident in your answer.


Anyway, ew at this company's desperation, prostitutions is not something for you to use as a mediaplay, especially when there are kids in this group, and SK is one of the place that have high rates of human trafficking to the US.

[supersunshiner.livejournal.com]

stop giving these sweet talented girls a bad name just for fame they've already been nominated for numerous awards jfc

[forsureyoudo.livejournal.com]

but they are not winning them so

[tree-star123.livejournal.com]

MESS

[parkjsun.livejournal.com]

WM's been suspect ever since they released that statement about JinE being diagnosed/recovering from anorexia. I don't think they pulled this shit with B1A4, did they? Ugh, what a crappy company.

These girl's deserve so much better and I feel really bad because they looked so sad when they arrived back in Korea, and I think Binnie was crying.

[bri-and-red.livejournal.com]

Looking back on Gongchan's kidney surgery their media play looks a little suspect, considering the reason he gave was that he delayed the surgery was so that he wouldn't worry fans it's a little weird that they put out article(s) about it...I don't know though

Seeing WM's treatment of OMG I can't help but wonder if they've been like this the whole time