4th Gen Idol’s Uncle Exposes Company For Foul Play And Sabotage Prior To His Departure

It was recently announced that EPEX‘s Keum Donghyun would be leaving the group. The company announced that their contract with him had come to an end, and that he would be departing while the other members continued to promote. Along with his departure, allegations of school bullying and harassment arose, accusing Donghyun of underaged smoking, causing a victim to be dropped by a company, and more.

You were smoking and doing Instagram live streams while you were still a minor, hanging out in groups with trainee kids and acting like a delinquent. Then you got me dropped from the CJ audition, bullied me and isolated me even inside the company, and then got cut off by idols from major agencies. After that, you even pretended to be connected to a major agency to approach me again and told me to kill myself, lol. When are you going to fix your attitude?

— Post

4th Gen Idol’s Sudden Departure From Group Surfaces Viral Bullying And Harassment Allegations

Fans found this extremely suspicious however, as Donghyun stepped out in public not once, but twice. He had a successful run on Produce before debuting in EPEX. If the rumors were true, it would be hard for Donghyun to survive both without being cut. Furthermore, there was a two year gap between EPEX’s debut and his run on the survival show. Fans questioned why the rumors were only rising up now, when he has already left EPEX.

A netizen revealed that their mother was friends with Donghyun’s uncle. According to the uncle, C9 Entertainment’s CEO had sabotaged Donghyun directly to prevent him from earning money. As Donghyun’s individual popularity rose, he was getting more solo gigs such as MCing and more. For solo gigs, the money split was different compared to when EPEX earns as a group. As such, the CEO allegedly forced him to leave some of these gigs such as Music Core.

English translation https://t.co/1qfi3Yoviw pic.twitter.com/7k8QQX3P0s

— NOUF🐢 EPEX IS 8 (@iinii6x) November 22, 2025

During Produce, his uncle even sent my mom an autograph, telling us to support Keum Donghyun a lot. When I first heard about things, it hurt my heart but I felt that I shouldn’t speak on it so easily, so I just held it in by myself. But seeing as his controversy is growing bigger, I decided to write a post about it. I’ll delete this if it becomes problematic.

— ashi8240

The company has yet to rebuke these allegations regarding their mistreatment and mismanagement. Stay tuned for more on the topic.