Ahn Joon-young, a producer director of Mnet's Produce X 101, is suspected of vote manipulation facing a possible arrest. He was spotted receiving favors at an adult entertainment center.
On November 5, SBS 8 O'Clock News reported that the police filed a warrant for arrest as they found that the PD and other staff attempted to destroy the mobile phone messages and related data.
The media reported that the producing director Ahn Joon-young was confirmed to have received favors that cost millions won at an adult entertainment center located in Gangnam. "The police conducted a seizure and search at the entertainment center and secured the relevant evidence," added the report. The police said, "We are going to apply the charges of bribery." The media reported, "But it was not confirmed whether the agency was related to the idol who benefited from the ranking manipulation."
The Mnet idol audition program, '' Produce X101, '' caused a suspicion of rigging text voting right after the final live broadcast in July. Suspicions spread as the analysis revealed that the number of votes from 1st to 20th was all displayed as a multiple of a certain number of '7494.442'. "There is no official statement on the issue," said the producer X101. However, they announced later, "The final rankings were okay, but we found that there was an error in counting and delivering the individual final votes announced by the broadcast."
After the controversy spread, Mnet requested police investigation, and after several times of seizure and searches, the court conducted an interrogation to determine the warrant's validity. Prior to the interrogation, Ahn Jun-young responded to the question "Are you admitting to voting charges?", "I will sincerely follow the due process."
Three other members of the entertainment agency involved in the allegations were also warranted. Since then, PD Ahn Joon-young and others have been transported to the detention center being tied by a trap role. It will be confirmed whether they will be arrested.
Mnet stated, "It is confirmed that a warrant has been applied to some of the producers of 'Produce X101. We will watch how it proceeds.' The program added, "Once again, we deeply apologize to the viewers, fans, producers and all the related staff who loved 'Produce X101'. We will cooperate with the investigation team and will be accountable for the parts we are responsible."
