It has been revealed that the late Kim Sae Ron took on part of her family’s debts and relied on financial support from friends in the entertainment industry to cover her living expenses before her passing.
According to 2023 court documents, Kim was listed as one of the creditors in her father’s personal bankruptcy case. Her claim reportedly exceeded 250 million won ($180,000).
Her father had filed for bankruptcy in December 2020 after his business collapsed during the pandemic, leaving debts to over 20 creditors. The court approved his bankruptcy and debt discharge in March 2023, at which point Kim was just 20 years old.
Close sources say Kim had also invested in a restaurant her family opened under a friend’s name in May 2021. She not only put in money but also used her celebrity connections to help promote it. However, the restaurant eventually shut down in 2024. According to the property manager, the restaurant shut down before the lease ended due to unpaid rent and maintenance fees, resulting in the complete loss of its deposit.
Things became even more difficult after her DUI incident in May 2022, when she crashed into a transformer. During her DUI trial in 2023, her lawyer shared that Kim was supporting her entire family: “She’s the head of the household. Not just Kim, but her family as well is going through serious financial hardship.”
An industry insider revealed, “Kim worked non-stop—at cafes, bars, flower shops, even teaching acting lessons—just to cover basic living expenses. Things were tight enough that she worried about rent. Early last year, she had to urgently pay off a 50 million won ($37,000) loan from an athlete friend, and her agency stepped in to help cover part of it.”
SBS Entertainment News confirmed that aside from the three celebrities Kim personally mentioned, she owed money to several others—singers, actors and athletes—with loans ranging from a few hundred thousand to tens of millions of won. She reportedly owed around 700 million won ($51,600) to her former agency Gold Medalist and another 60 million won ($44,000) to Run Entertainment. Altogether, her known debts amounted to at least 1.2 billion won ($870,000) at the time of her passing.
>> Kim Sae Ron Listed People Who Helped Her Before Death on Instagram
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