On the 9th, Songpa Police Station in Seoul decided not to refer two employees of Hwang Hee-chan's management agency to prosecution in a dispute over vehicle protocol services, clearing them of the criminal referral that Company A had sought.
Company A accused the employees, identified in police records as B and C, of fraud, joint intimidation, obstruction of business, defamation and insult. The company first lodged complaints at the beginning of this year and submitted complaints on two occasions before the police reached their decision.
The police decision removes the immediate threat of criminal referral for employees B and C, but it did not end the matter: because Company A objected to the no-referral ruling, the case was automatically forwarded to the prosecution for review, restarting the legal process at a higher level.
Company A has told investigators that Hwang Hee-chan agreed in 2024 to promote its vehicles on social networking services in exchange for vehicle protocol services. The management agency has pushed back, framing the arrangement as a commercial contract rather than criminal conduct.
The agency issued a formal statement defending the deal: "It has been confirmed that this was a legitimate bilateral contract, in which protocol services were provided in return for waiving the advertising model fee, taking into account the financial situation of the other company." The statement portrayed the arrangement as an advertising-for-service trade made with awareness of Company A's finances.
In the meantime the agency also stressed Hwang's professional focus. "As a member of the Republic of Korea national football team, Hwang Hee-chan will focus on his responsibilities and do his best to achieve good results at the 2026 FIFA North America World Cup," it said, signaling that the player will continue preparations while the legal question moves through the system.
The friction in this case is procedural as much as factual: police investigators judged the evidence insufficient to refer employees B and C for prosecution, yet the complainant's formal objection triggered an automatic transmission of the file to prosecutors. That leaves a dissonance between the investigative finding and the fact that a prosecutor will now re-examine the same allegations.
What happens next is square and decisive in scope: the prosecution will review the objected case and decide whether to accept the police conclusion or to pursue indictment. That decision will determine whether the matter ends without charges against the agency employees or escalates into a prosecutorial case that could implicate the agency — and, by association, raise further questions about Hwang Hee-chan's contractual relationships.
