David Yong (Im Se-jun/ The Korea Herald)
David Yong, CEO of Evergreen Group Holdings, who starred in various Korean TV programs and YouTube content introducing himself as a K-pop singer and Singaporean businessman with a 120-billion-won asset in cash, was charged with falsification of accounts on Aug. 3 in Singapore.
He allegedly had the intention to defraud by abetting a woman named Jolene Low Mong Han to falsify a tax invoice from Evergreen Assets Management for purported bulk sales of household fittings and appliances.
Yong could be fined, jailed for up to 10 years, or both if convicted.
“Various companies under Evergreen Group Holdings were raising funds through the issuance of promissory notes that promised an annual interest of 10 percent. Investigations arose due to the suspicion that investor monies were misused,” said the Singapore Police in a press release.
Yong did not respond to a request for comment.
Yong, also a K-pop enthusiast who had debuted as a K-pop artist with the single “In My Pocket,” released independently in 2022, sought to expand his business network in Korea by investing some 600 million won ($435,224) in the K-pop entertainment agency Attrakt in August 2023.
In return, he acquired a 1 percent stake in the agency.
In the same month, he also promised a further investment of 10 billion won ($7.5 million) in Attrakt to help foster the agency’s vision in the K-pop industry.
“The investment was offered when we were discussing with JTBC a plan to run an audition program called ‘New Girl Group Project.’ At that time, we needed that investment to proceed with the project. But when Keena (one of the four original Fifty Fifty members) came back, we halted the project with JTBC and focused on recruiting members for the second generation of Fifty Fifty. So we no longer needed his investment,” an executive from Attrakt told The Korea Herald on Wednesday.
In an interview with The Korea Herald in March, Yong said that he was actively involved in recruiting members for the second generation of Fifty Fifty from Southeast Asia through an audition to make it a multinational group.
A month earlier, on Feb. 3, Fifty Fifty’s agency Attrakt had held an audition in Singapore to recruit K-pop trainees.
“K-pop is mainstream in Southeast Asia. When you have global members, it shows how inclusive K-pop actually is. Having members from Thailand, China and Vietnam makes them relatable to people from their home country," Yong said in March.
However, Attrakt says the finalist of the Singapore audition did not get to debut in the K-pop scene with Fifty Fifty.
“Yong who is interested in K-pop told us that he could bring in some good candidates from Southeast Asia for an audition. But they were not good enough to make the debut in a short time. We talked about how we could form a partnership when these were ready to debut,” said Attrakt’s executive.
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