In a legal battle against agency and talent, one has emerged a victor. SM Entertainment has announced it has won the lawsuit against former EXO member Tao over the advanced payment the singer asked before his took a break in April last year.
Huang Zitao, who now goes by the screen name Z.Tao, asked for money from his talent agency SM Entertainment in 2015 as temporary payments but when he failed to return the money on the promised schedule, SM filed a lawsuit against him on Oct. 13, 2015. And then Tao filed a legal case to nullify his contract with the agency.
In a statement released by SM Entertainment, as reported by KMusic, the agency said that in verdict from an intermediate court in Qingdao, China, Tao is ordered to pay SM Entertainment the money he borrowed plus interest earned for the delayed payment.
"SM provided the temporary payments in order to faithfully fulfill our role as his agency. However, despite clearly knowing the bank account number, he failed to pay back the temporary payments within the promised time. Then he went against common sense and filed a lawsuit to nullify his contract," SM said.
SM Entertainment also has an ongoing legal cases involving other former EXO members Luhan and Kris in relation to violation of their exclusive contracts and illegal promotions in China.
"SM will not dwell on this ruling and will pursue legal action against all actions that are unlawful and violate SM and EXO's rights and interests," the agency added in the statement. "We will represent the good intentions of victims and work to prevent damage toward Korea and China's cultural exchanges that was caused because of Kris, Luhan, and Tao's illegal actions and breaches of contract."
Back in November, when Tao broke his silence since he left the popular Korean-Chinese group, he told People In News (via KMusic), "I had never thought about leaving the team, but a lot of things are simply beyond ones' imagination."
"Thing all turn out rather differently from what you think. At the moment, perhaps in that instant, I didn't want to be like that anymore. I wanted to go home," Tao added.
