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SM Entertainment's A&R unit head fired after secretly registering wife's name as lyricist for EXO and BoA songs

SM suspects that a well-known lyricist whose name had been conveniently used/altered by the former employee knew about the wrong doing

An SM Entertainment employee, who worked as head of the A&R unit, was reportedly removed after it was revealed that he secretly registered his wife's name as lyricist in a number of EXO Baekhyun, EXO-CBX, BoA songs. According to reports, in as many as 15 songs the former employee, referred to as Mister A, registered his wife's name for participating in writing the lyrics without informing the company.

SM suspects that a well-known lyricist whose name had been conveniently used/altered by the former employee knew about the wrong doing. According to reports, the former A&R unit head was punished due to the violation of fairness and abuse of power.

SM Entertainment responded to the news on May 6, saying, "Recently, it was confirmed that the employee was involved in improper work progress, and disciplinary action was taken in this regard."

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Fraud against SM Entertainment

EXO fans, who pull no punches in slamming SM Entertainment, have come together to talk about how the company is the victim in this instance. They also slammed the former employee's abuse of power as the head of A&R is responsible for discovering, communicating, and taking care of artists, and producing songs that fit the artist's name. Along with that, A&R heads also ensure that all the work in the recording company - from production to promotions, run smoothly without any glitch.

A fan said, "SM are mad and with good reason. The songs are by extremely popular artists, imagine the amount of royalties that person received. That is fraud. Not only against the company, but also against the other lyricists and composers/producers, whose royalties were reduced as a result."

SM is the victim

K-pop fans have also taken to Twitter to share how for once SM was the victim, but some users misunderstood the report and slammed the company anyway. A fan wrote, "Sm is victim. thats so hard to belive but is true!" Another fan chimed in saying, "Ok sm better sue lol." A fan noted, "Huh...wtf shouldn't the wife have a songwriter's id registered under KOMCA too??? this is a literal crime???"

List of songs that were allegedly involved with the artist's name

Though not confirmed, a fan shared a number of tracks that were produced under this process.

The tracklist includes, 'Artificial Love', 'Baby You Are', 'Lotto,' 'Lucky One,' 'What I Want For Christmas', 'Going Crazy', 'Smile On My Face', 'Been Through' of EXO plus Baekhyun's 'Stay Up', EXO-CBX: 'The One', 'Vroom Vroom'. The list reportedly also features Boa's 'Got Me Good,' 'I Don't Mind,' 'Your Song' and Lee Haein's 'Santa Lullaby.'

Strong disciplinary action

While details of the punishment are not known, a report suggests that SM suspects a close relationship between the former A&R head and a famous lyricist who helped make this possible. As the action of the individual strongly violates the trust and fairness of the company, severe disciplinary action has been taken. SM Entertainment is yet to comment on the issue.

Meanwhile, SM Entertainment's 'genius idol', Baekhyun, left for military today on May 6 after sharing adorable buzz cut photos with fans. Read all about it here.

Stream Baekhyun's 'Bambi' here.