Former EXO member Tao has finally spoken about the statement released by SM Entertainment in Jan. 5 regarding the lawsuit filed against the singer.
Tao's statement was released through the Weibo account of the singer's workshop rebutting the validity of SM Entertainment's statement. Aside from his comments, his workshop included e-mail screenshots to serve as evidence, as reported by Soompi.
The statement was written entirely in Chinese and has been translated in English for media purposed. The statement opens as follows:
"On January 5, SM Entertainment released a statement saying, 'SM filed a lawsuit against Tao for failing to repay SM on October 13, 2015. An intermediate court in Qingdao, China made the verdict that Tao is to repay SM Entertainment as well as interest for the delayed payment.'
The announcement notes that SM Entertainment's statement is not true. They are thus releasing their own statement to be able to distinguish right from wrong and to protect the honor of Tao.
The statement continues to explain that before the singer sought to nullify his exclusive contract with SM Entertainment in April 2015, both sides were in the middle of negotiations. This meant that the company providing temporary payments was a mere voluntary action.
SM mentioned that despite knowing the bank account number, the singer failed to pay back the temporary payments within the promised time. Tao's party claims this is not true.
The statement claims that Tao kept a 'contract-centered mind' and 'principles of faith and trust.' The singer claims to have tried to repay the temporary payments through a representative many times as he even requested a bank account number from SM.
However, SM did not reply accordingly and did not provide the accurate bank account number to Tao's representative. Tao's workshop claims that SM intentionally filed the lawsuit against the 'delayed repayment' to be able to buy time.
The statement released by Tao's workshop said that SM used exaggerated words to deliberately sway the public's reaction towards negative criticisms that can harm China and Korea's cultural exchanges.
Now, Tao's workshop will submit evidence in order to block SM from distorting the truth. The group will take legal action against violations to Tao's honor in order to protect the singer.
Just a day before, SM Entertainment released an official statement that they won the lawsuit filed against Tao for contract violation and taking part in illegal promotions in China, as reported by All KPop. The agency won because Tao allegedly failed to pay back the amount in which he owed the company.
