Musical theater star Ok Joo-hyun has been found to have operated talent agencies for years without proper registration.

Local news outlet Sports Kyunghyang reported on Wednesday that Ok’s current agency, TOI Entertainment, is not registered as a pop culture and arts planning business as required by law. Her other one-person agency, Title Role, was also found to be unregistered.

The report found fellow actor Lee Ji-hye, also signed under TOI Entertainment, to be listed as an auditor for Title Role.

Korean law mandates that corporations and businesses with more than one employee in the entertainment industry that fail to register as pop culture and arts planning businesses are subject to criminal penalties, including up to two years in prison or a fine of up to 20 million won ($14,400). Any business activities conducted without registration may result in the suspension of operations.

TOI Entertainment and Title Role followed up with a joint statement the same day, apologizing for their failure to complete the proper business registrations.

“However, we want to stress that we never intended to evade legal procedures, nor did we operate the companies illegally,” the statement read.

The two agencies explained that an “administrative error” occurred while preparing for the registrations three years ago.

“We are currently identifying the cause and will immediately move forward with the supplementary procedures […] We will take this incident as an opportunity to strengthen our administrative oversight and do our best to maintain public trust.”

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]