Case involving chicken magnate's son to be litigated in South Korea first.
Byline: Kris Olson
Attorneys for the son of a South Korean fried chicken magnate are hopeful that their current "holding pattern" will be mercifully short, allowing their client to obtain a final measure of justice against employees of South Korea's state-run television network.
On Hyewoong "Allen" Yoon's behalf, those attorneys, Joseph Perl of Watertown and Bernard D. Posner of Boston, have already negotiated a $9 million settlement, ending a lawsuit against Yoon's former guardian and longtime alleged tormentor, Hyunwook Joo.
Sent to America at age 11 to attend school, Yoon was placed in the New Jersey resident's care, only to have Joo abuse him mentally and physically, his complaint alleged. Yoon also claimed that Joo used the tutoring services Joo arranged as a platform to defraud Yoon's father out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Once that gravy train had derailed, Yoon says Joo's final dirty trick was to reach out to a Korean Broadcasting System reporter, Seyeon Lee, offering to dish fabricated dirt on Yoon's father.
Joo alleged Yoon's father had absconded with funds from his restaurant chain, BB.Q, to pay for the education and lavish lifestyles of his children in America. BB.Q has approximately 300 restaurants in more than 50 countries, including one in Allston.
In addition to giving reporter Lee an anonymous on-camera interview, Joo also teed her up to believe that Yoon was violating the terms of the E-2 visa he had been granted due to his position with his father's company.
In the course of her reporting, Lee tracked down Yoon in Massachusetts and secretly recorded a phone conversation with him, in violation of the state's wiretapping statute, Yoon alleges.
That recording became part of what Yoon says was a defamatory hit piece, which was broadcast not just over the airwaves in South Korea but on a number of well-trafficked websites, including YouTube. With 2.5 million viewers, Americans comprise Korean Broadcasting System's second largest foreign audience. On the internet, the video has received over a million views.
In a Dec. 20 decision, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Patti B. Saris first declined to allow KBS and its employees to use the Foreign Services Immunities Act as a shield, given the "commercial activities" they had conducted in the United States.
Saris then bisected Yoon's lawsuit, finding that courts in South Korea provide an adequate alternative forum in which to prosecute Yoon's defamation and trade libel claims...
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