Jakarta, September 14th, 2024 — Recently, there has been a major controversy in Indonesia's creative industries over an exposé about the abuse and mistreatment done by the leaders and co-founders of Brandoville Studios: Cherry Lai and Ken Lai.
Brandoville Studios was a game and animation studio based in Jakarta, Indonesia that recently closed down between February and July 2024. The official statement about their closure follows in August 2024 (https://www.instagram.com/p/C-w8R0nTgPM/).
This GitHub gist is intended to compile all allegations against the co-founders of Brandoville Studios and Lailai Studios along with the relevant proofs. A lot of the materials were written in Bahasa Indonesia, and since this case has gained so much attention in Indonesia, it's only a matter of time before we need to put spotlights on Cherry Lai and Ken Lai internationally. To do so, I'm compiling these documents and making them available for English readers.
⚠️ These documents and statements from ex-employee of Brandoville Studios contain reference of violence, mental abuse, physical abuse, and other potentially triggering content. Proceed with caution.
Since 2021, there has been allegation of crunch culture in Brandoville as reported here (https://101wired.com/2021/03/16/studio-lemon-sky-dan-brandoville-dituduh-melakukan-crunch-culture/).
It wasn't until September 2024 that a complete statement from one of their victim came to light: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGPODX3TK0/kBd22SPjKWoiOjwKvj-gnA/view.
Mirror link: ABUSE AND MISTREATMENT FROM CHERRY LAI.pdf https://files.catbox.moe/fmilqp.pdf
For clarity, the victim who wrote the statement above will be identified by her initials "CS" throughout the rest of this gist.
The document describes a detailed account of abuse and mistreatment by Cherry Lai, a manager at Brandoville Studios, towards an employee (CS). Here are the essential points:
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Physical Abuse: Cherry Lai physically abused the employee, including slapping, choking, and forcing them to hit their head against a wall, leading to injuries such as tinnitus, concussions, and sinusitis.
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Emotional Manipulation: Cherry used manipulation tactics to control the employee, including isolating them from friends and family, spreading lies, and making them believe everyone hated them.
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Financial Exploitation: Cherry forced the employee to use their own money for her personal expenses, including buying her clothes and paying for her hotel stays, leading to significant debt.
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Workplace Abuse: Cherry subjected the employee to excessive work hours, sleep deprivation, and verbal abuse, including body shaming and racist remarks.
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Isolation and Control: The employee was forced to rent a room near the office to be available 24/7, and was not allowed to take sick leave or see their family without Cherry's permission.
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False Accusations: Cherry accused the employee of stealing and sent subpoenas under false pretenses after the employee had returned her belongings.
Another case of abuse done by Cherry Lai was brought to light by one of her victims, who at the time was pregnant and forced to work overtime, she experienced bleeding that led to premature birth. Four months later her baby passed away and Cherry Lai verbally abused her friend in the studio about her leave, going as far as cutting her pay and threatening to kick the grieving mom out of the project: https://x.com/Adriandhy/status/1834055501635891603.
With a lot of these cases coming to light, other ex-employees and victims of Cherry Lai have came forward with their own statement, complete with proofs just like the first statement: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tUJIb8gE-Ale3ETjJD_FE8ao7UVcbCVU/view?usp=sharing.
Mirror link: Proof.pdf https://files.catbox.moe/udetph.pdf
This document contains various instances of abuse and mistreatment by Cherry Lai towards employees at Brandoville Studios.
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Discrimination and Verbal Abuse
Cherry Lai discriminates against employees who request sick leave or have family issues, often using threats and verbal abuse -
Verbal Abuse
Cherry frequently uses profanity and derogatory terms to belittle employees, including calling them "idiot," "bitch," and "fucking stupid" -
Body Shaming
Cherry engages in body shaming, making derogatory comments about employees' physical appearance -
Physical Abuse
Physical Violence: Cherry physically abuses employees, including slapping, choking, and kicking them. Specific incidents include:
- June 2024: Cherry slapped, choked, and kicked an employee in the lobby of the KYK Building
- July 2024: Cherry threw a remote control at an employee and asked another employee to slap themselves repeatedly
- July 2024: Cherry slapped an employee and forced them to clean up after she poured water on them at St. Regis hotel
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Manipulation and Control
Forced Self-Harm: Cherry forces employees to slap themselves or bang their heads against walls as a form of punishment -
Psychological Manipulation: Cherry uses psychological manipulation to control employees, including making them feel guilty for taking sick leave or having personal issues
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Unprofessional Behavior
Unprofessional Meetings: Cherry holds long, unproductive meetings that often involve verbal abuse and humiliation of employees -
Inappropriate Requests
Cherry makes inappropriate requests, such as asking employees to accompany her family members or perform personal tasks unrelated to their job duties -
Financial Exploitation & Abuse
Cherry exploits employees financially, including forcing them to pay for her personal expenses and threatening to deduct their salaries for minor mistakes -
Religious and Racial Discrimination
Religious Discrimination: Cherry forces employees to participate in religious activities and discriminates against those who do not comply -
Racial Discrimination
Cherry makes racist remarks and discriminates against employees based on their ethnicity -
Other Abuses
Long Working Hours: Cherry forces employees to work long hours without adequate rest, often leading to physical and mental exhaustion -
Threats and Intimidation
Cherry uses threats and intimidation to control employees, including threatening to fire them or harm their families
On September 13th, 2024, it was reported that the case was brought to the local law enforcement but still yet to hear a response from the police. According to some of the ex-employees, Cherry Lai fled Indonesia by the 13th. Meanwhile related communities and associations tried to get Legal Aid Institutions to pick up this case, considering its urgency: https://x.com/Adriandhy/status/1834427673986433183.
The family and friends of CS successfully raised funds for her medical and psychological treatment, with excess funds planned to be donated if any: https://x.com/komrikmania/status/1834821694885969984.
As of September 14th, it is reported that LBH APIK (https://lbhapik.or.id/) along with Serikat SINDIKASI (https://sindikasi.org/) have connected with CS to legally handle this matter. https://x.com/SINDIKASI_/status/1834901095120093499
When the allegations, victim accounts, and proofs came to light in the morning of September 9th, another game studio with the name Lailai Studios was discovered on Facebook, Instagram, and their own website on the domain lailaistudios.com.
At the time of the writing, the website http://lailaistudios.com is no longer accessible. However, before the website was made unavailable, picture of Ken Lai was in the website, along with their Brandoville portfolio of the games they worked on, further confirming that Lailai Studios was co-founded by Ken Lai and Cherry Lai.
They also put their studio location as Jakarta, Indonesia on their Facebook page, as well as the website, before changing their location to Hong Kong, and then taking down the Facebook page and website.
While the website no longer accessible, the domain lailaistudios.com is still registered on GoDaddy.
On social media, hundreds if not thousands have shared the news regarding Lailai Studios and their relation to Brandoville co-founders, the Lais - warning people not to fall into their horrible work practices.
This, however does not dismiss any possibility that Ken Lai and Cherry Lai may be starting yet another venture with a different name, in another country, with other partners.
The case sparked reactions from multiple institutions parallel to the gaming industry in Indonesia, as well as major news outlet.
Here are a few of them:
- AGI (Asosiasi Games Indonesia): https://www.instagram.com/p/C_2A6RIvhHI/
- IGDX (Indonesia Game Developer Exchange): https://www.instagram.com/p/C_28RFQvt7o/
- Serikat SINDIKASI: https://x.com/SINDIKASI_/status/1834901095120093499
- The Lazy Monday: https://x.com/TheLazyMonday/status/1834143168541196383
- Tempo: https://en.tempo.co/read/1916622/creative-industry-union-condemns-acts-of-violence-committed-by-cherry-lai-on-employees-at-brandoville-studios
Personally, this case feels quite heavy to process mentally. And while there are many cases of abuse in the creative industries due to crunch, unhealthy work hours, predatory employment, et cetera, the story of these abuse that happened to ex-employees of Brandoville Studios is one of those rare one where it's a clean cut: the people in power really did abuse their power through manipulation and literally physical abuse. I personally can't see any room for discussion to defend or side with Cherry Lai and Ken Lai. They had every chance to prevent all of these and yet they still did.
This writing is published on GitHub Gist, meaning every edit made to this page will be publicly visible.
If there are any accounts, proofs, statements, anything that I missed, please feel free to reach out to me on X - https://x.com/vngnc/.