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On August 29, 2024, SM Entertainment denied claims of covering up Moon Taeil's s*xual offense allegations for two months. He was charged on August 28, and the company announced his removal from NCT and NCT 127 the same day.
Allkpop reported that a female victim filed the complaint in June 2024, leading to public backlash against SM Entertainment for allegedly hiding the case and allowing Moon Taeil to promote NCT 127's latest comeback Walk since July 23.
However, the company said that they were alerted of the case in mid-August and the investigation started on August 28.
"Both SM Entertainment and Taeil were notified of the criminal investigation in mid-August. Taeil was then summoned for questioning on August 28 KST."
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NCT members unfollowing Taeil, DearU Bubble terminating his services: Everything happened so far
Meanwhile, on August 29, DearU Bubble declared that they terminated Taeil's services and account from the platform. DearU Bubble is a fan community app similar to HYBE's Weverse, where fans and artists can interact with one another.
DearU Bubble announced that the termination would take effect immediately on August 29, 2024, at 11 AM KST. Refunds for fans who have subscribed to him exclusively would be carried out, according to the app guidelines.
On August 28, SM Entertainment issued a statement where they stated that Moon Taeil was removed from the K-pop group NCT and its sub-unit NCT 127. However, SM Entertainment announced that due to his ongoing s*xual offense criminal case, he was withdrawn from the band and his activities were halted.
"This is SM Entertainment. We have recently confirmed that Taeil has been implicated in a criminal case related to a sexual offense. After verifying the facts related to this matter and recognizing the seriousness of the situation, we have determined that Taeil can no longer continue his activities with the team and have decided to remove him from the group after discussions with him."
They continued,
"He is cooperating fully with the police investigation and we will provide further comment as the investigation progresses. We deeply apologize for any offense our artist may have caused."
Following SM Entertainment's statement, all NCT members unfollowed him on social media in response to the criminal claims. Additionally, Taeyong even deleted all of his photos with him. Doyoung, Mark, Jungwoo, and Winwin also unfollowed his profile on Instagram and deleted pictures with him.
He debuted as a member of the band in 2016. The sub-unit NCT 127 dropped their 6th studio album, Walk, on July 23, 2024, and the 30-year-old idol was part of the project and was actively promoting it.
The Seoul Bangbae Police Station stated that the criminal charges do not include any offense made against any minor of the same gender. However, they are investigating the case to know further details.
Meanwhile, NCT member, Jaehyun, halted his ongoing solo album promotion due to the ongoing criminal case against the former band member.
