Accusations of fraud
On June 4, 2014, the non-profit anti-trafficking organization Breaking Out announced on their Facebook page that, after a year-long investigation of Chong Kim and her life, they had "found no truth to her story. In fact, we found a lot of fraud, lies, and most horrifically capitalizing and making money on an issue where so many people are suffering from [sic]." Breaking Out also accused Kim of defrauding several organizations out of charitable donations and announced a coming lawsuit. Later that day, Griffiths commented on her Twitter account, "I just heard about this today and it came as a shock. I am deeply concerned about it." Eden's official website claims that "A portion of the net profits from EDEN will benefit anti-slavery organizations." Kim responded on her Facebook page, stating "I don't appreciate you spreading lies about me … Whatever you claim to have I have the right to see it otherwise I will send you and your organization a formal complaint."
After these accusations arose, Noah Berlatsky of Salon compared Kim to Somaly Mam and commented that the film was thickly layered with exploitation tropes and improbable scenarios. Berlatsky found it shocking that "anyone took this clearly fanciful, clearly derivative fiction for fact". Journalist Elizabeth Nolan Brown criticized "the authors who repeated Kim's story, the journalists who interviewed her, the organizations that brought her on as a speaker, or any of the myriad people behind the 'based on a true story' Eden" for not checking and verifying Kim's claims. Journalist Mike Ludwig argued that the narrative promoted by the film harmed consensual sex workers. Seattle sex worker Mistress Matisse had been questioning the veracity of the film since 2012. Matisse stated that Colin Plank and Megan Griffiths "perpetrated a fraud in their movie called Eden."
The Stranger journalist David Schmader had previously called the film a masterpiece and the best film ever made in Seattle, but has since called its back story "bullshit." Stranger writer Jen Graves was highly critical of Griffith's lack of research into Kim's story and regretted her initial support of the film. Since Breaking Out first made their allegations, Griffiths and others directly associated with the film have refused to comment further, but the film's official website continues to promote the film as "Inspired by the harrowing true story of Chong Kim." In 2012, Griffiths won the Stranger Film Genius Award. Charles Mudede, a Stranger writer and former winner of the award, wrote that Eden had "secured her nomination" and was "a masterpiece".
On June 25, 2014 Kim's PR firm Bradshaw & Co. publicly denied the allegations and referenced a pending lawsuit. Since its initial allegation, Breaking Out has continued to release information about Kim on their Facebook page, including court documents detailing Kim's 2009 felony charge of theft by swindle, for which Kim was ordered to pay $15,000 "to another human trafficking victim and activist in Minnesota."
