Yoo Jae Suk Caught Up In His First Ever Scandal, Here Are All The Details
On December 18, 2019, YouTube’s Garo Sero Institute channel — the very one that accused singer Kim Gun Mo of sexual assault — shared another video accusing “a former Infinite Challenge member” of sexual harassment.
One of the three hosts of the channel, Kim Young Ho — a former editor and journalist of a major newspaper — shared a minute of audio from a two-hour-long phone conversation with a bar hostess who claimed to have witnessed inappropriate sexual behavior from a well known K-Celebrity.
Anonymous Hostess: He was kind of well known at the bar for masturbating in the room. He would ask for wet wipes and clean his private part with it…
Kim Young Ho: I’m sorry, I’m kind of confused. He would come to the bar and masturbate in front of the hostesses?
Anonymous Hostess: Yeah, he would ask the waiters to bring him a wet wipe. I was new at the bar… But the other hostesses and the managers all seemed to know about it already. I was surprised because at the time he appeared on Infinite Challenge…
Upon sharing the audio, Kim Young Ho and the other hosts pointed out that this celebrity is one, a good friend of Kim Gun Mo’s, two, an acquaintance of host Kang Yong Suk‘s, and three, often praised for his outstanding reputation.
I’m sharing this because I want everyone to know how celebrities come with dualities. I want people to know how they create fake reputations for themselves and pretend to be good natured when they appear on TV.
— Kim Young Ho
And this video immediately shot keywords like “Infinite Challenge” and “Yoo Jae Suk” to the top of the most searched lists on search engines — since Yoo Jae Suk is most frequently associated with having an unbreakable, good reputation.
Coincidentally on December 19, 2019, the day after the video went viral, Yoo Jae Suk held a press conference as his trot-singer alter-ego Yoo San Seul. At this entirely unrelated press conference, originally held to discuss his first album, Yoo Jae Suk ended up mentioning the scandal and denying all allegations suggesting the potential of him being the celebrity from Infinite Challenge.
I was surprised to see Infinite Challenge on the keywords list today. I would like to clarify, since I’m at a press conference after all, that I am not the person discussed in that video.
— Yoo Jae Suk
Following, Garo Sero Institute shared another video on December 19, 2019 in which they discussed Yoo Jae Suk’s press conference. They claimed they “didn’t say anything about Yoo Jae Suk” specifically and insisted that they had no intention of bringing Yoo Jae Suk into the picture.
Kang Yong Suk: Did we ever mention Yoo Jae Suk yesterday? We didn’t say anything about him.
Kim Young Ho: I even pointed out specifically that the viewers shouldn’t think too deeply into the show Infinite Challenge being mentioned. I drew that line.
Kim Se Eui: Thousands of people appeared on Infinite Challenge.
Kang Yong Suk: We said yesterday that I know the celebrity personally. I do not know Yoo Jae Suk personally. There is nothing that links me to him.
They did, however, immediately bring up a whole new allegation claiming that Yoo Jae Suk had something to do with FNC Entertainment‘s 2016 stock price manipulation scandal. Kim Young Ho clearly stated this time, “Yoo Jae Suk is definitely related to that case.”
Back in 2016, CNBLUE’s Jung Yong Hwa had his mother buy FNC Entertainment’s stocks after finding out that Yoo Jae Suk will be signed to the agency… Yoo Jae Suk said he knew nothing about it. I was going to write an article about that Yoo Jae Suk part — but FNC’s CEO came running to me. As soon as I called him to say that I had such an article drafted and ask for his comment, he came speeding in his Porsche… Now that I’m not associated with any company, I can say whatever I want. And I say Yoo Jae Suk definitely had something to do with that [insider stock trading scandal].
— Kim Young Ho
Garo Sero Institute then challenged Yoo Jae Suk to “try clarifying” their new allegation as well.
Yoo Jae Suk, please let us know if you bought any FNC stocks at the time. If you turn out to have been a part of the insider trading and profited from it, you will have to cough it up.
— Kang Yong Suk
Yoo Jae Suk is yet to respond to the second round of allegations. Meanwhile, some Korean netizens have grown agitated by Garo Sero Institute’s endless exposé.
Garo Sero Institute keeps dragging Yoo Jae Suk down with all these allegations… And they’ve gone completely over the line now. They’re messing with the wrong person.
— Agitated Netizen
