Clownfish TV: Audio Edition
Animation Studio FINED $500K for Working with North Korea?!
An Italian animation studio got hit with a $500,000 penalty for using a US bank to pay a North Korean animation studio that they were outsourcing to. Now that we know shows like Invincible are (reportedly) animated in North Korea, could Amazon and Warner Bros. also get hit with penalities? Will this lead to even MORE contraction in the Western Animation industry? ➡️ Tip Jar and Fan Support: http://ClownfishSupport.com ➡️ Official Merch Store: http://ShopClownfish.com ➡️ Official Website: http://ClownfishTV.com ➡️ Audio Edition: https://open.spotify.com/show/6qJc5C6OkQkaZnGCeuVOD1 An Italian animation studio was fined $500K for outsourcing work to North Korea, violating sanctions, and potentially involving Amazon Prime and HBO Max, raising questions about North Korea’s involvement in Western animation production. 00:00 Italian animation studio fined $500K for outsourcing work to North Korea, violating sanctions, with allegations that Amazon Prime and HBO Max are also involved. 02:46 Italian animation studio fined $538,000 by US Treasury for violating sanctions by sending money to North Korea for production services. 04:26 Animation studio fined $500K for working with North Korea and laundering money through third-party companies. 05:33 US animation studio fined $500K for making payments to North Korea through a US shell organization. 06:57 American animation studio fined $500K for outsourcing work to North Korea, raising questions about North Korea’s involvement in Western animation production. 09:43 Animation studio can work independently and cut out middlemen to be more cost-effective, despite potential fines for working with North Korea. 10:38 Animation studio fined $500K for working with North Korea, but smaller independent companies can compete with less overhead, and animators should consider starting their own thing and working from home or in a cheaper location. 11:54 Animation studio fined $500K for working with North Korea. About Us: Clownfish TV is an independent, opinionated news and commentary channel that covers Entertainment and Tech from a consumer’s point of view. We talk about Gaming, Comics, Anime, TV, Movies, Animation and more. Hosted by Kneon and Geeky Sparkles. Disclaimer: This series is produced by Clownfish Studios and WebReef Media, and is part of ClownfishTV.com. Opinions expressed by our contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of our guests, affiliates, sponsors, or advertisers. ClownfishTV.com is an unofficial news source and has no connection to any company that we may cover. This channel and website and the content made available through this site are for educational, entertainment and informational purposes only. These so-called “fair uses” are permitted even if the use of the work would otherwise be infringing. #Animation #Invincible #News #Commentary #Reaction #Podcast #Comedy #Entertainment #Hollywood #PopCulture #Tech
Hey guys, this is the audio edition of clownfish TV. If you guys are unfamiliar with clownfish TV, please check out the video versions of these episodes on the clownfish TV YouTube channel and also on the clownfish gaming YouTube channel. Please subscribe for more podcast. Check out D-Res, that's our other podcast. The episode will begin in a couple of seconds. Thanks for listening. (upbeat music) Hey guys, welcome back to clownfish TV. This is neon. I am here with geeky sparkles. - Hello. - And we're gonna talk about the animation industry outsourcing to North Korea. We talked about this before because some shows, I guess, were being outsourced to North Korea including HBO Max shows, including Amazon prime shows, including Invincible. Let me, okay, here's what I'm confused about. So North Korea is wanting to deal with like Western ideology, Western ideas, but they have no problem animating Western shows that are full of them. - Apparently, that's-- - I mean, you know, we're still toxic. We can't be over there, but we can, we can still be exposed to all of it when you're taking the money to animate it. Did that make any sense? It's like the honestly, well, we can't use electronics, but we still have cell phones when we go to shop at the store. - I know. - I did, I know. - And everything else. And I can say that 'cause I live in an area that's really, really full of it. (laughs) - We live, yes. The Pennsylvania, the lots of Vomish everywhere. We're gonna talk about this 'cause it's interesting. There's, and you're like, why is an Italian studio being fined by the US Treasury? - That's what I said. - And here's because they used American financial institutions to pay North Korean animation studios and that violates sanctions or something or the laws. - But they had to have laundered it some way because they decided directly they would have caught it. I don't know. - Somebody's got them explaining the deal. - Some, I am wondering if we're not gonna see more of this because again, this is an Italian studio and there are allegations that Amazon Prime and HBO Max are using the same services. Now, the story I heard was that they contracted South Korean animation studios, which most, quote unquote Western animations is actually animated in South Korea and then they outsource some of the animation to China. Again, that's a very common practice and then China outsourced it to North Korea. So it was kinda laundered, but I'm like, I guarantee you some people know who's actually doing it, but these guys just like, I guess apparently paid North Korea directly. - I was explaining it and said it could make sense of it 'cause I'm trying to figure out how this happened. - Yeah, we're gonna read this. This has come from Cartoon Brew. Probably the best blog for Inside Baseball on the animation industry. Hands down. - Some people argue that. - Some people argue that. The people, the people who are cartoon stands who've never actually worked in the industry. Yeah, they're gonna say that they don't know what they're talking about. They actually do know what they're talking about. So let's talk about this. Before we answer today, further please subscribe for more pop culture news, views, and rant sketch. Yeah, woo-hoo, if you do. Again, all the credit to Cartoon Brew says, Italy's Mondo TV was fined $538,000 by the US Treasury for producing animated shows in North Korea. That is one hell of a headline. - Okay, but let's explain how, 'cause I'm trying to understand how this happened. - Okay, well. - And why there's, our Treasury can go after Italian animation company. - Well, here's the answer. - Okay, please explain. - Italian animation company Mondo TV has agreed to pay about half a million dollars for apparent violations of American sanctions prohibiting the use of the US financial system to send money to North Korea. Between May of 2019 and November of 2021, Mondo sent $537,000 to the North Korean government-run animation studio S.E.K. for production services, according to a press release. - They knowingly sent it. - Yes, so they just wired it to these. - So how was it affect our Treasury Department? - Well, they said, according to the press release, right? They said by doing so, the US government said, Mondo had acted with reckless disregard for US sanctions, laws, and regulations and caused US banks to process payments for the North Korean government. The US government said Mondo had been subcontracting work to North Korea since the '90s. Mondo, on occasion, has hosted North Korean animators in Italy for animation training. Oh, damn. - But apparently Italy has no problem with using North Korea. It's just, they apparently tried to use American payment processing? - Yeah, that's what's going on. They said, yeah, so that's how the Treasury got involved. They said, I mean, it's kind of scary. - It's very confusing. - It's kind of scary that the US Treasury keeps tabs on, like, did anybody... - That looks like it's not our country, what the hell? - So they're like, you're laundering money through, yeah. So before each monthly payment, they said that they, Mondo accumulated approximately $1.1 million in outstanding debt owed to S.E.K. for several projects, right? So before each of the monthly payments, 'cause apparently they go on a payment plan with them, S.E.K. would issue an invoice to Mondo that named a third-party company, and its bank account details for Mondo to remit payment. Among them, S.E.K. identified two-third part... Okay, this is interesting 'cause I am wondering if they're not gonna go after Warner Brothers and Amazon. They said, S.E.K. identified two third-party companies in China and one US company, along with their respective account information at several US financial institutions. Mondo then remitted the monthly payments to the intermediaries according to S.E.K.'s instructions. Mondo appeared to believe the payments to these third-party companies were to satisfy debts S.E.K. had to these companies. So they're saying, Mondo, the Italian studio, is saying that S.E.K. is having them send money to, like, these other, you know, China and the US or whatever. - But if a US company should be in trouble because they would, you know, China wouldn't, but the US company would be in trouble because they would, why would they remit payment to North Korea? - Yeah, well, they're trying to launder it to make it look like, yeah. So throughout the course of their relationship while remaining payments, according to the agreement, Mondo understood. So here's the difference. Mondo understood they were paying North Korea. Mondo's chief executive officer approved and signed the 2019 agreement, which made explicit reference to North Korea as did two additional contracts he signed on behalf of Mondo with S.E.K. for additional projects. So they're using, they're wiring money to US Shell organization, I guess, the way I understand it. And they knew that they're paying North Korea. Now the difference with Warner Brothers and Amazon was they-- - They contracted South Korea-- - South Korea. - Not knowing they were gonna send to China and it inadvertently went to North Korea, yeah. - But now the next question I have is on paper, they say they didn't know. Could it just be, they actually do know, but they don't have it. Like, okay, we're just gonna get-- - They agreed to pay it. So they must know they're guilty and caught in some way. - Yeah, they said that ultimately Mondo initiated 18 wire transfers to Korean animation studio S.E.K. that were processed by or settled at US financial institutions. - So the US financial institutions know it was being sent there or they sent it in someplace else and from there it got sent to North Korea. - They're not getting very clear on it, but they-- - They're not very confused, not this is clear at all. - Yeah, well here, they actually, okay, they're actually talking about invincible. They said, yeah, they said many questions were named about how much animation work North Korea does for Western producers. A few months ago, a report from the Stimson Center's 38 North Project found that American producers may have used production services from North Korea. Unlike Mondo, the Americans were apparently-- - They're unaware of it, yeah. - Apparently unaware of their work was being outsourced to the heavily sanctioned Asian country. American shows that were allegedly produced in part in North Korea include invisible. - Visible, yeah. - And Ayanyu is at the-- - I don't know. - That's the, I think it's the Cartoon Network thing that looks kind of like Avatar. The US government has been increasingly visual in about it, et cetera, et cetera. So yeah, this whole thing, I am wondering if this is not gonna blow up into a huge debacle and like they're gonna rip the band-aid off. And we're gonna find out that like so much quote unquote Western animation is actually being done in North Korea. - I'm sure it is 'cause if a lot of us go to South Korea and South Korea is outsourced into China and China has been outsourcing to North Korea, then yes. Or if you're outsourcing to other countries like Italy and they're just sending it there. - That's the thing, right? So they're saying that where they got them was that they knowingly made a deal with North Korea and they were using US banks. - That's just like the US bank. - Right. - They were running money through there. - If they weren't running the money through the US banks, it would've been a nice. - It would've been a bit of trouble. - So what is going on though is again, you pay South Korea, South Korea pays China. China is the one, the Chinese studios are the ones making the deals with North Korea. So it's on them, right? So this really could, if it turns out that is the case, and if it turns out that all the production costs and stuff associated with Western animation are due to cheap labor and they're like, well, you can't get this company SEK involved at all in any capacity, whatever, then that means that the cost of animation might actually skyrocket. - That's what I'm thinking, yeah. - And then that means there's a lot. - 'Cause they didn't do it all the override by the sounds, right? And then that means that either we're gonna have more AI or they're just not gonna greenlight as many shows. - Or the flip side is if there's independent companies that can do it in a cost-effective manner, they might, now might be the time to set up because if you can, if you could take some of the overflow so that it's going to a United States company or company like in Canada or something that can handle the overflow with trained animators who can do it for a reasonable cost to avoid possibly inadvertently going to North Korea and having to pay sanctions in bad PR, they might be better off to hire those people and they don't have the corporate overhead. So now might be a good time for independence to start their own. - Yeah, it's true. - It doesn't be overflow. - Yeah. I mean, back in the day, it was actually pretty simple. It was like you either worked in Hollywood or you worked in there were some New York studios and then a lot of times they work with Japanese studios too. - And the cool thing now is if you're independent and you have a group of you, you don't even necessarily need a location if you have the equipment at home, you could just take meetings and everybody work on their own stuff and you could undercut big corporate studios and still do things cost effective 'cause they have enough money. Think about this. They have enough money to pay the South Koreans and the South Koreans have enough money to go pay the Chinese and the Chinese have enough money to go pay the North Koreans. - Everybody's taking a cut. - Everybody's taking a cut. So why don't you just cut the middle man and then you can still take less than the major corporations when they still get paid more than they're paying North Koreans? - I'm just saying, you know what I mean? And then they're gonna be cracking down and sounds like there's gonna be an opportunity here. - Well, that's true. - That's true. - I mean, in my opinion. - Looking on the bright side of it, right? - I mean, if you don't have the overhead and everybody can do it from, you know, you have like their small location right works together or everybody can do it at home and your small thing with not as much overhead and you can compete, you might as well try. - Well, there we go. So there may be some good will come out of this. - Oh no, I mean, what do you think? - I think we're gonna go down a rabbit hole and we're gonna find out that so much 2D animation is being sent to North Korea. - I'm not asking about that. I'm asking what you think about my idea. - I think it's a good idea. I think that right now, I think just in general, and I had this conversation with Peter Pischi on his podcast and talking about, you know, these big corporations just kind of running everything. I think right now we need more independent companies, more smaller pockets, not central lines. - We have all the animators going out of work are getting laid off and they're really skilled. You know, use your skills people. - Yeah, there you go. - Use them for your own benefit. Not somebody else's that could let you off, start your own thing, get in a co-op with other people and go after these jobs 'cause they're gonna, sounds like there's gonna be a lot of jobs soon. - Yeah. - And live someplace cheaper. You don't have to live in LA. - That's why I said do it from home. - You don't. - You just Skype them together and, you know, yeah. - To like, I don't know, middle like Utahers. I don't know, but you can work someplace else. You don't have to work in a Burbank or Glendale. So there we go. We're gonna be watching this story 'cause this is gonna be really interesting to see, to see what happens with the fallout from this could potentially be. So we're gonna wrap it up. - Yep. - Please subscribe. We'll talk later. - Bye. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Thanks again for listening. More news and videos are available on our website at www.clownfishtv.com and on our YouTube channel, clownfishtv. You can buy official merchandise, clownfish, comic books and more at shopclownfish.com. If you like this show, please consider subscribing and leaving us a positive review on iTunes and other podcast platforms. If you're looking to help support this show financially, go to clownfishsupport.com. If you'd like to sponsor an episode of this show, send us an email at business@webrief.io. This podcast is a production of clownfish studios, LLC and web reef media proudly made in Pittsburgh, USA. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)