Founder of K-pop label YG resigns amid drugs and sex scandals

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SEOUL (Reuters) - Yang Hyun-suk, founder of South Korea’s YG Entertainment which manages top K-pop performers, stepped down on Friday from his duties as chief producer, in the aftermath of drug and sex scandals involving his artists.

In March, a member of YG’s boyband Big Bang quit showbiz over sex bribery accusations, prompting police investigations and the resignation of four K-pop stars including him.

Allegations subsequently surfaced of a network of pop stars, businessmen and cops having colluded and enabled tax evasion, bribery and prostitution, exposing the dark side of the glitzy industry.

“I have waited out in patience this situation in which shameless and humiliating words are being thoughtlessly spread as if it is the truth,” Yang, a former legendary K-pop star, said in a statement.

“But I don’t think I can hold it in any longer.”

Yang said he was stepping down to avoid further damage to the firm’s artists over the accusations. These involved prostitution mediation, tax evasion and cover-up of a drug scandal, all of which he has denied.

YG’s top shareholder, Yang, founded the K-pop management firm in 1996. His brother Yang Min-suk, the agency’s chief executive, also stepped down, according to a regulatory filing.

On Wednesday, the leader of another one of YG’s boy bands, iKON, also exited show business over media reports that he was attempting to buy illegal drugs. He publicly apologized for his act and quit the band.

YG Entertainment is one of the top K-Pop record labels behind groups BlackPink and Big Bang, but its shares have slumped for months, hit by the scandals.

Shares of YG Entertainment closed down 5.6% on Friday, falling for a third consecutive session, while its affiliate, YG Plus, lost nearly 6%.

Reporting by Sangmi Cha; Editing by Ju-min Park and Clarence Fernandez

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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'Central Park 5' tell Oprah of pain and redemption after Netflix series

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The five men wrongly convicted of raping a jogger in New York’s Central Park in 1989 said on Sunday that a new Netflix Inc series about their case revived the pain from their ordeal but, for some, brought a sense of redemption.

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, the men who became known as the “Central Park Five” said they were grateful that the four-episode dramatic series called “When They See Us” humanized them and used their story to spotlight injustice.

“It’s bittersweet,” said one of the men, Kevin Richardson, as he sat on stage with the others. “Watching this is painful, but it’s necessary. It needs to be watched.”

The five men - Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise - were 14 to 16 years old at the time of the rape and confessed after lengthy police interrogations. The victim was white and the defendants all black or Hispanic.

Each soon recanted, insisting they had admitted to the crime under coercion from police officers. But they all were convicted and served prison terms of six to 13 years.

Their convictions were overturned, in 2002, after another man confessed to the crime and DNA tests confirmed his guilt. In 2014, they settled a lawsuit against for $41 million.

“It brought back a lot of pain,” McCray said of the series. “I thought I was over it.”

McCray, who broke into tears during the discussion, said he did not feel any sense of redemption and still suffered from the trauma of being falsely accused and imprisoned.

“Even to this day, I’m damaged. I need help. I know it,” said McCray, who added that he has rejected his wife’s request that he go to therapy. “The system broke a lot of things that can’t be fixed.”

Asked if had forgiven his father, who urged him to confess to the crime, McCray said: “I hate him. My life is ruined.”

“No, it’s not,” an audience member shouted.

The interview, part of a Netflix campaign for television’s Emmy awards, was recorded and will premiere on Netflix and on Winfrey’s cable channel OWN on Wednesday.

Slideshow (2 Images)

Salaam said he believed the series was helping people to “realize that we didn’t have to go through this. This is how the system, despite the wheels of justice, mowed us down.”

He said he used to feel like he was walking around with his head down. Now, “I’m proudly raising my head,” Salaam said to applause.

Winfrey, an executive producer of the series, said the world had known the men as “a derogatory headline for decades” but now she hoped they would be known as “the exonerated five.”

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O.J. Simpson says 'Life is fine' 25 years after notorious homicides: AP

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FILE PHOTO: O.J. Simpson reacts after learning he was granted parole at Lovelock Correctional Center in Lovelock, Nevada, U.S., July 20, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Bean/Pool/File Photo

(Reuters) - Former football star and television personality O.J. Simpson said that he and his family have moved on from the “trial of the century” that saw him cleared of a double murder, but forced to pay millions in a civil suit, according to an Associated Press exclusive.

Simpson told the AP in an interview that “Life is fine.”

He reflected on the upcoming 25th anniversary of the murders of his former wife and her friend, and the subsequent criminal and civil trials, in an AP interview early Monday.

Simpson was found not guilty in a criminal trial over the homicides, but was later found responsible in a civil trial.

He is living healthily and happily in Las Vegas and neither he nor his children want to look back and talk about the June 12, 1994 slaying of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, he said to the AP.

“We don’t need to go back and relive the worst day of our lives,” he said, adding that it is a subject that “I will never revisit again. My family and I have moved on to what we call the ‘no negative zone.’ We focus on the positives.”

Simpson served nine years in prison, released in 2017, after a conviction of robbery and kidnapping in an unrelated case concerning a dispute over sports memorabilia.

He was acquitted by a jury in 1995 of the slayings of Brown and Goldman, but later lost a civil wrongful death suit in 1997. A civil court awarded a $33.5 million judgment against him.

He told the AP that Nevada has been good to him and he is living life outside of the national spotlight.

Reporting by Rich McKay; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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