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Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 9:20 pm
Suspended until further notice, that is. Here's the reason. Theft of 320,000,000 yen from a major advertising company: former company employee arrestedA former employee of the major advertising company Asatsu DK, INC and the executive of a music label were arrested in connection with fraud totaling 320,000,000 yen. In 2001, Kaku Kouichi* (39), a former employee of ADK, Tomioka Yuu [DYNAMITE TOMMY] (43), the president of the music label FREE-WILL, and Murasaki Ittoku (35) of the same firm placed a false order for costumes, concert costs, music video costs, and other overhead costs for the popular band Dir en grey, and are suspected of fradulently taking 324,000,000 yen from Asatsu DK, INC. The majority of the money was given to Tomioka by Kaku*. In regards to the investigation, Kaku* confessed to the charges while Tomioka denies them. Sources: http://www.nikkei.co.jp/news/shakai/20070914AT1G1401C14092007.htmlhttp://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/ann/news/web/index9.html?now=20070914121832
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Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 4:01 am
As far as I know, after checking the LJ you link back to first thing this morning:
Update on the ticket sales dilemma. The following was taken from pretystupidgirl's post on Batsu, which was taken from another forum.
so what went down today was this: only two of the cities, that I'm aware of, went on sale today: Nagoya and I think Sapporo (maybe Sendai...) However, the Loppi and Pia systems were never activated. If you don't know about ticketing information in Japan, there are two automated systems for use in convenience stores and some department stores called Loppi and Pia. Major events will have codes created, so that you can enter them into the computer and automatically print out your own ticket. I don't know why this happened, but it does seem, so far, to be related somehow to the scandal. However, ticket sales WERE still possible through the direct ticketing center-- except there were so many people all calling at once that no one could get through this morning. A friend of mine tried calling early this morning and never got connected. I finally managed to find someone at my office to help me call this evening at around 5, but the direct center told her that tickets had sold out earlier today (naturally, my luck being what it is).
SO, ticket sales were not entirely suspended and no shows have been cancelled or anything like that. It's possible that there was some coincidental computer error; it's also entirely possible that Pia and Loppi refused to activate the ticketing for these shows in response to what happened with Tommy. I don't know, and as far as I know, no one does yet.
Also, on Diru's webpage there's a popup in which Free Will apologizes for the chaos and disorder Tommy caused.
s**t, I was so worried all day yesterday that I spent every hour sitting at my laptop, surfing the net for fresh news. As far as I know the story goes like this [in order to filter out as much rumors as possible]: Dynamite Tommy took this huge amount of money in 2001 with the reason that he needs it for a Diru PV. The money partially went to the PV, but what Diru didn't know is that the larger part of the amount went straight into Free Will as one, after going through 3 different and unrelated bank accounts to "wash it clear". Investigation on the issue started back in 2003, and in 2004 Tommy and Free Will was charged in court to pay back the exact amount of yen to whoever they got it from (I think that advertising company that got mentioned in the Japanese article), but Tommy refused to pay ever since. So now he got caught with those two other people. Dir en grey only got to know about the issue as soon as we did, as far as I know the band isn't directly involved, it's just that Tommy gave a Diru PV as a reason for why he needed that much money. xp So it all comes down to this (according to me and my close friends reading thru tons of articles): Tommy used Dir en grey to solve Free Will's money matters. scream So now some people think Diru took that much money, but they didn't. As far as I know the investigation of Diru has already been done but I'm not going to swear on that. Some people on Batsu forums and LJ are seriously creating out-of-the-blue rumors about how Diru is involved, but I say if they were directly involved, I mean the five of them, they wouldn't be currently on tour. Think about Kisaki's case back in Spring: he got arrested in no time. We all know the rest. But, just to shed some positive light on Kisaki; as far as I know Dynamite Tommy has been his close friend and advisor.
I don't know what will happen to Free Will and it's sub-divisions. It's not just Diru who's affected, but also The Gazette, 12012, kannivalism, Kagrra, and many small Indies bands. What I was able to figure out is that 12012 and Kagrra has already switched labels. Most people think that after this Diru is more then likely to leave Free Will. I'm sure many labels will gladly take them, though there might be some blacklash on the band - as in delays - due to the fact that switching labels just doesn't go and get done in 10 minutes between two shows.
I feel really sorry for Dir en grey; just when they were getting internationally famous Tommy goes and gets their name involved in a tax fraud issue like this. But let's hope that Diru won't get set back too much due to this. Who knows, they can even use this "bad popularity" to their advantage. I can already see it as a headline "The Infamous Dir en grey...." So far what I know is that Diru isn't going to postpone or cancel any tours, the Japan tour isn't cancelled, the Europe tour isn't cancelled - in fact it's I think totally sold out by now (in Finland the tickets for both shows were sold out in 30 secodns after the servers were opened - some people got no life, seriously), the two shows with Linkin Park didn't get cancelled. The release of the new single DOZING GREEN is not officially delayed. [Note on the new single: as the manager of the Hungarian Street Team I contacted someone around Diru through their MySpace and I got the info that originally they planned to relese the single before the Japanese tour but there were many difficulities. I think this person (I don't know whether a he or a she, that's why I wrote person) was referring to these problems with the label and the media.]
Note: Some people made it up in various places that the Diru members were in a court hearing/about to have a court hearing. This information WAS NEVER CONFIRMED, it's not in the original article, nor on Diru's OHP, so I take it as a bad rumor.
My advice is: check regularly Diru's OHP for info, not just LJ or Batsu. Of course there's some valuable info on there as well, but mostly the posts are just whishful thinking, personal chaos theories, and general bad rumors by those who dislike Dir en grey.
Sheesh, dear kamis, sorry for the unusually long rant! burning_eyes
Edit: Recent news - the band Kra, also signed with Free Will, is in serious trouble due to the fraud scandal. I think it might be because they are a smaller band and are more then likely to end up without a label.
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Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 11:01 am
ugh i heard about this right after that whole Kisaki bashing thing. why is everyone so mean to Diru lately =( errr. of course they would be brought into a scandel like this, they are one of the bigger bands, and not too many Japanese fans lately so they would be a good target but is so screwed up. *messeges their myspace* gah! oh well, they have a lot of fans that will gladly back them up. they'll pull through just fine this is just fuct.
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Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 2:18 pm
Gah.... Thats terrible. And Batsu... creating rumors. They should be ashamed.
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Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 8:50 pm
Sadly, Batsu's been always like that, as far as I know. Sure, there are many people there who have valid information, but there are specific threads to create rumors - I mean, c'mon... Also, many people there lack the proper knowledge of English to understand complicated texts, if they even speak English at all, and it all comes down to misinterpreted facts which later turn into rumors. But, I think I shouldn't bash Batsu here, when we're dealing with serious business. sweatdrop Yesterday I was again running thru the issue many times and came up on this: it seems 80% reliable that Diru's gonna sign to Sony Music, since they are not only signed to Free Will's Sunkrad division, but Sony too, and the last thing they actually published directly thru Free Will was some tour DVD (I can't remember which, but not the recent ones).
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 5:23 am
Thanks soooo much PrivateLeesh for the info! I was so worried up until now and I couldn't stop thinking about how Diru was doing. *big heartfelt sigh*
Stupid Tommy... how dare he get Diru involved in this. And woah... Diru signing to Sony? That does seem probable! It would be amazing if they did!! biggrin
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Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 10:48 pm
I know this isn't about Diru, but it made me think about the whole fraud thing. It's like everything all of a sudden is falling apart *wails* I can't even begin to speculate properly as to why this happened. Some people have said that Wataru was probably stressed about the fraud/switching labels and very drunk...That is ONLY speculation. No one knows why or what, only that it happened and he confessed. http://phantasmagoria.livejournal.com/297868.html
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Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 11:14 pm
Oh boy! Getting better and better....An to think I like 12012. But yes, this could be in connection with the fraud since 12012 is/was also signed to Free Will. Anyone here have info on Kra? I heard htey were in deep s**t.
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:41 pm
I haven't had time to actually research Kra's current situation but as you put it, i've heard that they're in deep s**t.
And despite the Wataru thing, I still like them. His actions won't influence that at all.
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 10:00 am
I had heard about the Free Will issues, but was not aware ticket sales had been suspended, not that I am surprised, I figured it was a matter of time before action was taken. And I would rather they deal with this right away then to put it off until after the tour or something.
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