Gold Medalist Claims They Never Pressured Kim Sae Ron To Repay Debts In Lengthy Statement
This article is part of our coverage of Kim Soo Hyun And Kim Sae Ron's Relationship. You can read more and view the entire timeline here.
Actor Kim Soo Hyun‘s agency has finally spoken up on his recent controversy. In a lengthy statement released March 14, 2025, Gold Medalist claims that they did not force Kim Sae Ron to make her repayments.
They claim that they had made efforts to lower her initial debut to the current publicly known value of ₩700 million KRW (about $482,000 USD). They also did not repossess her car, but helped sell it to settle her debts.
“Due to reports from Garo Sero Institute, Kim Soo Hyun was portrayed as a villain who drove Kim Sae Ron to her death. Garo Sero Institute alleged that Gold Medalist, Kim Soo Hyun’s agency, pressured Kim Sae Ron to pay off the debts resulting from her drunk driving accident. They further claimed that she sought help from him, but he ignored her, which ultimately led her to make an extreme decision. However, this is not true. At the time, Gold Medalist covered the remaining debts that she was unable to pay.
Gold Medalist worked with Kim Sae Ron to settle various financial obligations, including penalty fees related to her acting contracts and compensation for business owners affected by her drunk driving accident. The total penalty at the time amounted to approximately ₩1.14 billion KRW (about $784,000 USD). The agency made efforts to reduce the burden on Ms. Kim Sae-ron and managed to lower the remaining amount to around 700 million KRW through various means, including repairing and selling Ms. Kim Sae-ron’s severely damaged vehicle. Contrary to the claim made by a whistleblower to Garo Sero Institute, the agency did not take away her vehicle but facilitated its sale as part of the debt settlement process.”
— Gold Medalist
They further voiced out that Kim Sae Ron was unable to pay her remaining debt due to facing difficulties making a comeback to the industry. Gold Medalist allegedly wrote the remaining debt off for her after deducing that she would be unable to fulfil it.
“Despite her efforts, she faced significant challenges resuming her acting career after the incident and was ultimately unable to repay the remaining debt. As a result, Gold Medalist determined that she could no longer fulfill her financial obligations and wrote off her debt as a loss in December 2023. The agency’s audit report dated April 1, 2024, confirms that the entire debt amount was classified as a bad debt expense.
This process required Gold Medalist to follow legal procedures. If the agency had arbitrarily covered her penalty fees, its executives could have been accused of breach of fiduciary duty. Furthermore, if the agency had loaned her money without proper documentation, it could have been seen as granting unlawful benefits to a specific individual.”
— Gold Medalist
The agency explained that they were forced to send a formal notice in the form of a legal letter in order to follow the appropriate procedures to write it off. This would also help her avoid a gift tax on the waived amount.
“At the beginning of 2024, during an accounting audit, the agency had to decide how to handle its claims against Kim Sae Ron. Legal and accounting firms advised that if the agency wrote off the debt without any collection efforts, it could be seen as an unjustified exemption, potentially harming the company and leading to legal issues for its executives. Therefore, it was necessary to demonstrate that she was in a state of “unrecoverable” financial distress.
To establish this, the agency sent a formal notice to her. This was not an attempt to pressure her for repayment but a procedural step to confirm that the debt was officially being written off. Additionally, if her debt was forgiven, there was a risk that she would have to pay a gift tax on the amount waived.”
— Gold Medalist
All in all, the company denied pressuring Kim Sae Ron for repayment beyond her means. Previously, in multiple exposés, it was claimed that they tried to rip her off of money. You can read more about it below.
