Recording suggests MC Mong's gambling claim against actor Kim Min-jong was false

A recorded phone call by One Hundred chairman Cha Ga-won has emerged that appears to undermine singer MC Mong's allegations of illegal gambling against actor Kim Min-jong — with Cha himself saying Kim never touched a casino chip.

The YouTube channel "Yeonye Dwittongyeong Yi Jin-ho" released the recording Tuesday, in which Cha is heard speaking with an employee of a viral marketing agency in January.

In the call, Cha and the agency employee discuss orchestrating a "reverse viral" campaign — a tactic of spreading damaging rumors online to harm someone's reputation — targeting MC Mong, Kim Min-jong and others.

Regarding a potential reverse viral campaign against Kim, Cha wondered aloud whether it would gain traction, asking, "Would this really catch fire?"

He then said, "A younger acquaintance of mine spoke with casino staff, and they said Kim Min-jong was a visitor, so there are no records at all. They said he didn't touch any chips. They said he just sat nearby."

Based on the recording, Yi Jin-ho argued that Cha already knew Kim had not gambled.

The revelation directly contradicts what MC Mong claimed during a TikTok live broadcast in May.

At the time, MC Mong named Kim Min-jong as part of an alleged illegal gambling circle centered on Cha Jun-young, the uncle of chairman Cha Ga-won. Kim's camp denied the gambling allegations and announced plans to pursue legal action.

Kim reportedly suffered damages as a result of MC Mong's claims, including being dropped from a film he had been confirmed to appear in.

Yi Jin-ho alleged that Cha Ga-won had pressured MC Mong into targeting Kim. Yi said Cha sought to bring MC Mong to his side to gain an advantage in his dispute with his uncle Cha Jun-young. According to Yi, Cha ran a reverse viral campaign falsely accusing MC Mong of soliciting prostitution — pressure that apparently worked, leading MC Mong to align himself with Cha.

In the recording, Cha said, "My goal right now — the reason I'm doing this — is to get MC Mong to cooperate with my lawsuit." In a separate exchange about the cost of the viral campaign, the figure of 150 million won ($106,000) came up, prompting Cha to say it was too expensive.

Cha and the agency employee also discussed whether to run a reverse viral campaign against actor Nam Goong-min.

In the recording, a man says, "If we add Nam Goong-min, this keyword becomes too powerful," to which Cha replies, "Got it." In another exchange, someone says, "We decided to target Nam Goong-min, MC Mong, and MC Mong prostitution," and Cha asks, "We decided to go after Nam Goong-min too?"

Yi Jin-ho said Nam Goong-min had no connection to the matter whatsoever, and that his name was included in the reverse viral campaign solely because he had purchased a unit in a luxury villa development carried out by Cha Jun-young. "The purpose was to harass Cha Jun-young by going after customers of his uncle's development company," Yi said.