CEO of South Korean Eyewear Brand Blue Elephant Arrested in Landmark $9 Million Design Theft Case

The CEO of Korean eyewear brand Blue Elephant was arrested for selling nearly identical Gentle Monster replicas, generating over $9 million in illegal revenue.

By: AXL Media

Published: Mar 18, 2026, 5:18 AM EDT

Source: Information for this report was sourced from Koreaboo and South Korean regional news reports.

A Criminal Precedent in the Fashion Industry

The South Korean fashion industry is reeling following the arrest of the CEO of Blue Elephant, a brand previously noted for its rapid rise in the eyewear market. The Daejeon District Prosecutors’ Office’s Patent Crime Investigation Division formally indicted the executive, identified as CEO Choi, on March 12. The charges center on the systematic replication of products from the luxury brand Gentle Monster, signaling a shift in how South Korean law treats design "inspiration" versus criminal "imitation."

The Scale of Replication

According to investigators, Blue Elephant sold hundreds of thousands of units across 49 different models between February 2023 and June 2025. Technical analysis, including 3D scanning, revealed that more than half of the challenged products featured less than a 1mm difference from Gentle Monster’s original designs. Prosecutors allege the company had no in-house design team, choosing instead to outsource production to overseas counterfeit manufacturers while investing heavily in high-end branding and celebrity marketing to mask the products' origins.

Seizures and Financial Impact

The investigation, which was triggered by a complaint from Gentle Monster’s parent company, IICOMBINED, led to a massive recovery effort by the Korean Intellectual Property Office. Authorities have seized approximately 150,000 units of counterfeit inventory, valued at ₩7.30 billion ($5.5 million USD), to prevent further sales. Prosecutors have stated their intent to recover the full ₩12.3 billion in illegal profits generated during the peak of the imitation scheme.