James Reid, CEO and founder of Careless Music, has officially terminated Jeff Oh from the company as of July 2, 2024, citing legal and business irregularities.
Reid, alongside his legal counsel, Atty. Rodel de Guzman, revealed that Oh was removed from his roles in Careless following his arrest by the Bureau of Immigration for lacking proper work permits in the Philippines.
In a public notice published in Manila Bulletin, it was announced that “Jeffrey Hwamok Oh had ceased all official connections with Careless Holdings Ltd, Careless Music Manila, Inc., Careless Productions OPC, Island City Music PH OPC, and Premiere Private Label Inc.” The notice emphasized that Oh no longer held the authority to represent the Careless Group in any capacity or engage in transactions on its behalf.
The termination came after Reid initiated an audit of the company’s operations upon discovering that Oh’s legal paperwork was incomplete. Reid explained that Oh had been presenting himself as the CEO of Careless despite lacking the necessary legal documents to work in the Philippines.
Atty. de Guzman, who led the audit, uncovered several business mismanagement issues. “Well, may mga questionable, meron talagang mali. Basically, he tried to run the company on his own and represented himself in so many ways, that is not in accordance with legal practices. And that puts a lot of, um, risk on the company because, James was not aware of a lot of these decisions. On the administrative side, we found that there were a lot of transactions that were not properly documented,” de Guzman explained.
Reid admitted he had suspicions about Oh’s business conduct but trusted him, as many of his friends were also involved with the company. “I always had a bad feeling. I always had, you know. Hunch, but I trusted him. All of my friends also were working together with him. So, you know, I wanted it to work out. But then, you know, when all of these things came out, I thought, this is dangerous. I need to protect myself, I need to protect my artists, I need to protect my friends, my company, and just do the right thing,” Reid said.
De Guzman further emphasized that Careless, as a one-person corporation under Reid’s name, faced significant risks due to Oh’s mismanagement. “If there were violations, they would fall back on James as the company’s sole proprietor. We’re now working on fixing these issues and restructuring the company to ensure everything is in order.”
Reid and his legal team are committed to addressing the remaining loose ends and moving forward. De Guzman said they are still open to resolving matters with Oh but stressed the importance of completing the audit to safeguard the company’s future.
“We are continuing to fix all of these loose ends. We are still in the process of completing the audit. But we are already moving forward with our restructuring of the company. So that James can move forward also and sleep well at night, knowing that he’s safe,” de Guzman concluded.
