The court has denied Cho PD's appeal for fraud charges.
On May 22, the Seoul Central District Court held the sentencing for Cho PD's appeal trial, and he was given the exact same sentence as in his first trial. In November of 2018, the producer was sentenced to 2 years of a suspended sentence and 3 years of probation for fraud.
He was found guilty of not accurately filing the earnings he received in the amount of 270 million Won ($217,584.14 USD) for an idol group's performance in Japan in 2014.
As previously reported, Cho PD signed a contract transferring the assets and artists of his agency, Stardom Entertainment, to a company identified as 'A' in July of 2015. Cho PD also agreed to work for the company 'A' for 5 years and demanded he be compensated a total of 12 billion KRW (11 million USD), which is the amount he claimed to have used in investment for his artists. Cho PD also claimed he failed to receive any profit from the artists under Stardom Entertainment. However, company 'A' found out that Cho PD did not tell them about the profit of 270 million KRW (238,000 USD) that he gained from his artist's Japan concert in May 2014. He was later sued for fraud.
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See, this is another thing about the weakness of a suspended sentence. Everyone appeals their suspended sentences because they don't take them seriously. They don't look at it as, I was found guilty but given a second chance to do better. They see it more as a petty thing the judge did to hurt their reputation. They just don't translate to criminals properly.