The acting chief executive of the P.League+ has been fired due to a sexual harassment allegation less than a week after taking over the leadership of the professional basketball league from its previous chief executive, who stepped down over similar charges.
The P.League+ board of directors relieved acting chief executive Chou Chung-wei (周崇偉) from the post and suspend him from his original role as marketing director as punishment for his actions, the league said in a statement on Monday.
The statement did not specify the length of the suspension, but it did say the league’s board of directors would probably take about a month to decide on a suitable successor.
Photo: CNA
Chou was let go because of a leaked video showing his attempt to hug a cheerleader of the New Taipei Kings in an unidentified karaoke bar on an unspecified date.
The video was released on Facebook by radio host and pundit Huang Yang-ming (黃揚明) on Thursday last week, two days after Chou took over the post from P.League+ founder and former chief executive Blackie Chen (陳建州).
It showed Chou approaching Amber (倩宇), the captain of the New Taipei Kings’ cheerleader squad, in a karaoke bar from behind and trying to hug her while she was singing a song with other patrons.
Amber managed to get out of the embrace.
“The person who leaked the video said that the incident was not made public because Blackie Chen took Chou to apologize to the victim in person after it occurred,” Huang wrote.
He saw the situation as rather ironic given that Chen decided to step down from his post and take time off on June 27 after having been accused himself of sexual harassment and misconduct by a few entertainers.
In an Instagram story on Thursday last week, Amber confirmed that she was the one in the video and said the Kings’ cheerleaders were invited to the karaoke bar being used by league staffers after the cheerleaders and staffers met at the KTV.
“[I] was quite shocked when it happened,” Amber wrote of the incident, adding that she soon returned to where the cheerleaders were gathered.
League staffers visited that suite and offered their sincere apologies and promised to punish Chou, she wrote, adding that she accepts how the league has dealt with the case thus far.
Chou wrote an Instagram post about what he did at the KTV and said he had apologized to Amber the next day before asking the league’s board of directors to take disciplinary action against him.
However, he said that a screen shot of crude comments made by him was fabricated and he has asked the police to investigate.
The screen shot was posted soon after the video on Internet platform PTT showing supposed text exchanges between the user and Chou in which Chou makes indecent comments about Amber and the cheerleaders of two other P.League+ teams.
Chen was first accused of sexual misconduct on June 27 by entertainer Tina Chou (周宜霈), who said she nearly fell prey to him on a trip to Hong Kong in July 2012.
Chen, who hired two lawyers to defend him, denied the accusation and issued a joint statement with his wife the next day asking Tina Chou for NT$10 million (US$319,285) in compensation.
However, that led to more entertainers backing Tina Chou’s story, including Yuan Kuo (郭源元), Julie Tsai (蔡玓彤) and DJ Swallow (妖嬌).
Tina Chou, Tsai and DJ Swallow worked with Chen when he hosted the television program Blackie’s Teenage Club.
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