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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Suit settled over canceled concert


Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean pop star and actor Rain has settled a civil suit over a canceled concert in Hawai'i, reports said today.

The June 2007 concert for the performer — who has been called the "Justin Timberlake of Asia" — was canceled with just a few days' notice, disappointing fans who paid up to $300 for a ticket and flew to Honolulu from as far as away as Japan and South Korea. It was to be the first stop on the "Rain's Coming" U.S. tour.

A federal jury on March 19 ordered Rain and his former managers to pay a Hawai'i promoter $8.1 million in damages. It said Rain, his former agency JYP Entertainment Co. and two South Korean promotion companies breached a contract to perform and defrauded Click Entertainment Inc.

Rain settled the suit last week in Honolulu, South Korea's Kookmin Ilbo newspaper said, citing a U.S. court document. No details on financial compensation were given.

Other South Korean newspapers and broadcasters carried similar stories.

JYP Entertainment, which has severed its contract with Rain, declined to comment, citing a confidentiality agreement with the court.

The jury in March awarded $4.8 million in punitive damages to Click Entertainment Inc. Rain was found personally liable for half of that amount and JYP Entertainment was liable for the other half.

The judgment also includes $2.3 million in general damages, of which Rain and JYP must pay $1.7 million. Two other promotion companies, StarM Entertainment and Revolution Entertainment, are liable for the remaining $571,000. The jury also said Rain and JYP must pay $1 million in civil fraud damages.

Rain's real name is Jung Ji-hoon. In 2006, Time magazine named him one of 100 most influential people in the world.