During the first hearing, MnetŌĆÖs executive producer KimŌĆÖs lawyer stated, ŌĆ£It was wrong to give ranks that were different from viewersŌĆÖ evaluation. But he has no legal fault.ŌĆØ Kim is accused of manipulating the results of viewersŌĆÖ votes in Idol School, which aired from July to September 2017. KimŌĆÖs lawyer claimed that since KimŌĆÖs job was to rank and tally the votes, manipulating cannot be considered ŌĆ£obstruction of businessŌĆØ and that the fraud charges cannot be held against him due to legal issues. He then added, ŌĆ£The viewer ratings were dismally low, and the number of votes we received was so small that there was distortion. As such situations continued, I felt pressured to save the program, and thatŌĆÖs why I increased the ratio of online votes. We tried to raise the viewership for the benefit of the company, so you canŌĆÖt say that we disrupted the companyŌĆÖs business.ŌĆØ One of MnetŌĆÖs directors, who was indicted along with Kim, also denied his charges, saying, ŌĆ£As a manager, I take responsibility for the vote/ranking manipulation. However, I donŌĆÖt remember that I discussed with executive producer Kim about who we should pass or fail.ŌĆØ On a side note, producer Ahn Joon Young, who was put on trial for manipulating the rankings in Produce 101, was sentenced to two years in prison in the first trial and is currently getting ready for his second trial. Source (1)
