Actor Shin Hyun-joon. [Newsis]
Actor Shin Hyun-joon. [Newsis]

Allegations of preferential treatment are mounting against actor Shin Hyun-joon amid reports that a film festival he chaired awarded a 52.2 million won ($38,000) contract to a company run by his spouse — on top of an earlier controversy over a 375.65 million won promotional video deal the Seoul Metropolitan Government struck with the same firm.

According to Sports Kyunghyang, the Samcheok Tourism and Culture Foundation signed a private contract with Jays & River Co., whose chief executive is Shin's wife, on Aug. 21 for event management services covering the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2026 third Haerang Film Festival. The contract was valued at 52.2 million won.

Jays & River is a fashion startup focused on bag design, led by Kim Kyung-mi, a former cellist. The service was completed by Sept. 15, and payment has been made in full.

A private contract, awarded without competitive bidding, allowed the festival Shin chaired to engage his wife's company directly. The foundation cited a provision of the Local Contract Act Enforcement Decree applicable to women-owned businesses as the basis for the arrangement.

Earlier, on Wednesday, Seoul Metropolitan Council member Yoon Seon-hee of the Democratic Party of Korea (Jongno District 1), a member of the council's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, raised questions about the appropriateness of promotional video contracts awarded to companies linked to Seoul's honorary mayor and tourism ambassadors during an administrative audit of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's public relations planning office.

According to Yoon, Jays & River — whose chief executive is Shin's spouse — secured a contract to produce YouTube promotional videos for Seoul featuring Shin. The total contract value was 375.65 million won.

"The company simply added a business category to its registration — its core business is fashion, bags," Yoon said. "It is already hard to understand how the honorary mayor's spouse won a Seoul city contract, but do you think it is justified for a bag company to land a public video contract worth over 100 million won?"

The Seoul Metropolitan Government responded that "this contract was not compensation for the honorary mayor or tourism ambassador title, but a service contract for the production and delivery of separately planned Seoul promotional content." Jays & River rebuffed the criticism, saying its chief executive "has built more than 10 years of experience in the content industry, including cultural event management, and the Seoul city project followed all relevant laws and procedures."

Meanwhile, Shin took the microphone before the start of a press conference for KBS 1TV's "Insaeng Kwijeu," a quiz program, held Monday afternoon at the KBS annex international conference room in Yeouido, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. "I picked up the microphone because I thought you might have questions about recent news reports," Shin said.

Shin stopped short of offering a direct explanation, saying he had "heard that the Samcheok Haerang Film Festival side would explain the reasons and details" of the controversy, and asking those present to "please just cheer on and support the program today."


yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com