HYBE takes legal action over bullying allegations against LE SSERAFIM’s Kim Ga-ram

Source Music has announced that it has begun taking legal action over bullying allegations against LE SSERAFIM member Kim Ga-ram.

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Last month, after soon the South Korean label introduced Kim as a member of the brand-new girl group, the 16-year-old singer found herself embroiled in a controversy over allegations that she had been involved in bullying incidents during her middle school days.

One netizen, who claimed to be Kim’s classmate from middle school, alleged that Kim had regularly harassed younger students, according to posts archived by Koreaboo. Another set of posts archived by KBIZoom alleged that Kim repeatedly cussed out another person while asking them to pick up the phone.

At the time, HYBE denied all allegations, claiming that the posts had been “cunningly edited” in order to “maliciously slander” Kim.

However, new allegations have surfaced since the initial claims. Earlier this week, a netizen posted a photo of a document from 2018 titled “Notice of School Violence Committee Results”, which allegedly lists Kim Ga-ram as a perpetrator of school violence.

A report by The Korea Times notes that South Korean media outlet Money Today reached out to Kim Ga-ram’s school to confirm the document’s authenticity. The school, however, said that they could not give a response.

Meanwhile, HYBE, which owns Source Music, the agency in charge of LE SSERAFIM, is maintaining its stance on the matter. “Nothing has changed from our agency’s previous statement,” a representative from the company told News1, as translated by Soompi. “We have begun to take legal action, and the details will be sorted out during the legal process.”

The label also did not comment on the authenticity of the document posted online.

Earlier this month, LE SSERAFIM became the first girl group to debut under Source Music, following its acquisition by HYBE, with their mini-album ‘Fearless’. In a three-star review of the record, NME’s Rhian Daly praised the project’s title track for “not taking the en vogue route of in-your-face girl crush bangers”.

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