Chapter 346: Confess Truthfully
Seoul District Prosecutor's Office, nominally a reception room, but in reality, an interrogation room.
Yang Hyun-suk stared at the phone in his hand, the screen's light reflecting on his face, revealing his fluctuating mood.
Across from Yang Hyun-suk, Dr. Choi Min-soo sat calmly, flipping through files, occasionally taking a sip of coffee from the table, looking like a retired senior official.
After a long while.
Yang Hyun-suk put his phone down. The phone made a sound as it touched the metal table. Dr. Choi Min-soo, who was looking at the files, looked up and smiled at Yang Hyun-suk.
“President Yang, well played.”
Yang Hyun-suk's mouth twitched.
The messages he received were also similar words from various industry acquaintances.
They were all marveling at how brilliant his calculations were, saying that even though it was exposed, at least the goal was achieved.
But the problem was...
He didn't do this!
From the moment the 'slave room' incident broke out, he sensed something was wrong. Although things had been proceeding as they had anticipated, moving towards forcing IZONE's disbandment, many details gave Yang Hyun-suk a strange sense of déjà vu.
It was too similar to the IVE incident.
Both appeared to be covert operations by a company alliance led by YG to disband groups, but in reality, there was a deeper force hidden behind them.
During the IVE incident, Yang Hyun-suk's feelings weren't as strong, but this time, he realized the problem.
The early stages went too smoothly, so much so that when things started to change in the middle, he couldn't react in time.
Now, the situation was completely out of control. Although the goal of disbanding IZONE was achieved, a huge scapegoat was placed on his head.
The mastermind behind the disbandment of IVE and IZONE, and the primary suspect behind the 'slave room' incident.
The former was fine; at most, it would affect YG but not critically. But if the latter was confirmed, he would truly rot in prison.
Now, the matter had escalated too much. Yang Hyun-suk had contacted the higher-ups, and they didn't care who the real culprit was; they only cared if there was a 'culprit.'
Now, he possessed all the elements to become a scapegoat.
Thinking of this, Yang Hyun-suk no longer bothered to consider who was plotting against him; he needed to overcome the immediate difficulty first.
He absolutely could not admit to being the mastermind behind the 'slave room'!
And the breakthrough lay with Dr. Choi Min-soo, right in front of him!
“Prosecutor Choi, you should know that I have no connection to the 'slave room'.” Yang Hyun-suk took a deep breath and said.
“But Du Mingxiu's last interrogation before his death, his testimony pointed to President Yang.” Dr. Choi Min-soo said with a smile.
“This is a desperate accusation before death; it's his revenge against me for targeting IZONE!” Faced with a choice between two, Yang Hyun-suk chose to accept the smaller burden to shed the larger one.
“It's just one side of the story, I can't report this to the higher-ups.” Dr. Choi Min-soo looked at Yang Hyun-suk playfully.
This hint was very obvious, and Yang Hyun-suk naturally understood.
Dr. Choi Min-soo was telling him that he could get out, but he needed to find a scapegoat.
Yang Hyun-suk lowered his head, senior executives of YG flashed through his mind, names popping out like raindrops.
Soon, a name appeared in Yang Hyun-suk's mind.
“Prosecutor Choi, I want to report something. I have clues related to the professor's case that I want to report!”
Dr. Choi Min-soo gave him a satisfied look and opened a new page of the transcript paper.
“You speak, I'll write.”
“Our company's Vice President...”
As Dr. Choi Min-soo took notes, he inwardly marveled at Yang Hyun-suk's ruthlessness.
YG's Vice President was a veteran who had been with him since the company's inception. And he just sold him out like that?
But thinking about it, it made sense. There were only two or three people in YG, including Yang Hyun-suk himself, who had enough weight to bear such a huge burden, and among them, losing this Vice President was already the least damaging method for YG.
【Chairman Jiang's move of framing and then silencing is too ruthless.】
Dr. Choi Min-soo, having risen to Chief Prosecutor, naturally saw that Du Mingxiu was falsely accusing YG, but what did it matter if he saw it?
He had no evidence, and Jiang Shu had offered him a tempting price, so the truth no longer mattered.
“Alright, thank you, President Yang, for providing the lead. We will investigate as soon as possible and clear President Yang's name.” Dr. Choi Min-soo said with a smile.
Only the person who wronged you knows how wronged you are.
“Can I leave now?” Yang Hyun-suk asked.
“Not yet.” Dr. Choi Min-soo shook his head.
“I've already told you the 'main culprit'.” Yang Hyun-suk said with a frown.
“As you know, DM Entertainment is, after all, a key enterprise in Samsong-dong, and their Chairman is also a foreigner. The other party suffered great harm in this case, so the department is under pressure from above. We need to give DM an explanation.”
Do you want me to give DM Entertainment money?
No, DM wouldn't care about the small amount I'd give.
Then what did Dr. Choi Min-soo mean by that?
Seeing that Yang Hyun-suk didn't seem to understand his meaning, Dr. Choi Min-soo spoke again.
“If this Vice President Kim is indeed the main culprit, then President Yang, as the person in charge of the involved company, must also bear some responsibility.”
Now Yang Hyun-suk understood.
He sacrificed his own Vice President to extricate himself from the 'slave room' case, but it was impossible to get away completely unscathed. DM Entertainment wants us to prosecute you. Even if you have no connection to the 'slave room,' you cannot be completely unharmed; we cannot account for that.
So, Dr. Choi Min-soo's meaning was to make him confess to some crimes.
Yang Hyun-suk fell silent.
Someone like him would certainly not be clean. No businessman with the largest commercial empire has clean hands.
Yang Hyun-suk was considering what to confess.
Taxes?
No, he couldn't hand over the money he had.
The company was even less an option. With the failure of two recent groups, YG's accounts were already close to being in the red.
Moreover, tax issues are not criminal offenses and cannot solve the current problem.
And other criminal issues were not minor. Although not as serious as the 'slave room,' he didn't want to be locked up in prison.
After much thought...
“In 2016, to quell negative controversies involving artists, I bribed and threatened trainee Han XX, saying, 'Killing one of you is not a big deal.' This was a malicious threat designed to induce fear.”
Dr. Choi Min-soo was startled, not expecting Yang Hyun-suk to actually come up with a minor issue.
Threatening a witness to recant and making personal threats, the maximum sentence is only three or four years. With Yang Hyun-suk's voluntary confession, he would likely not even receive a prison sentence, a few years of probation would suffice.
However, it was enough.
Chairman Jiang only asked for a criminal charge, but didn't require a prison sentence.
“Then, President Yang, please come to my office, and we'll discuss this in detail.” Dr. Choi Min-soo said with a smile, standing up.
Yang Hyun-suk stood up expressionlessly.
Who could be behind all this?
Yang Hyun-suk already had an answer in his heart.