Singer Koo Chang-mo disclosed that after leaving the music industry, he invested most of the money earned from his automotive business into a deer antler project and lost it all.
On the 19th, Koo Chang-mo and singer Kim Beom-ryong appeared on MBN's variety program 'Sokpuri Show Dongchimi'.
That day, Koo Chang-mo revealed that after leaving the music industry, he made a fortune running an automotive business in Central Asia. Rumors even circulated that he had earned 40 billion won at the time.
However, Koo Chang-mo disclosed that through the deer antler business he started afterward, he lost most of his earnings in just four months.
Koo Chang-mo said, "A junior artist I met in Almaty came to visit me. He told me he was running a deer antler business in Siberia and called it an amazing venture." After personally touring a deer antler farm spanning hundreds of thousands of pyeong, he decided to invest.
He continued, "They said the money was 'tata-bul' (easy money). I fell for it completely," adding, "I put almost all my earnings into it. To put that in perspective, it amounted to five tons of deer antlers."
However, the problem was that he failed to properly grasp the domestic market size. Koo Chang-mo stated, "My biggest mistake was not understanding the Korean market at all," and explained, "There were no buyers for five tons of deer antlers. Even if they bought a lot, it would only be 100 to 200 kilograms." He reportedly had to bear expensive storage fees while keeping the deer antlers in a refrigerated warehouse in Hong Kong.
Quality issues also emerged. Koo Chang-mo explained, "The upper part was elite grade, but the lower part was F-grade, no bigger than a palm," noting that most of the imported deer antlers did not meet expectations.
Ultimately, he sold the deer antlers to wholesalers at rock-bottom prices. Koo Chang-mo revealed, "My total investment was about 3.66 million dollars (approximately 4.9 billion won), but only about 660,000 dollars (approximately 900 million won) remained," stating that he lost about 80% of his investment capital.
Koo Chang-mo debuted as the second member of the group Black Tetra in 1978. He joined Songgolmae in 1980 and gained popularity with hits like 'Eotteoka Majuchin Geudae' and 'Modu da Saranghari', and since 1985, he has been active as a solo artist, releasing hit songs such as 'Heenari' and 'Apeun mankeum Seongmukhaejigo'.
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