Former Big Bang Singer Seungri Jailed 3 Years for Arranging Prostitution & Other Charges

By
Sabrina Chua
-

If you followed the news of the Burning Sun scandal which broke in late January 2019, you would probably be pleased to hear that there’s a new update.

Burning Sun Scandal

For those who don’t know, Burning Sun was a nightclub in Seoul, Korea and one of the club’s directors was former Big Bang singer, Seungri, whose real name is Lee Seung-hyun.

The Burning Sun scandal involved the 30-year-old, other singers like soloist Jung Joon-young and FT Island’s Choi Jong-hoon, and high-profile elites participating in sex bribery and sharing hidden camera footage of sexual acts.

A secret chatroom amongst them was also exposed and it was uncovered that these people shared details of date rape as well as filming women without their consent during sexual intercourse.

The investigation into the scandal revealed the darkness of the entertainment industry and crimes that many thought they could evade detection for.

As more suspects started getting charged, many wondered about the fate of Seungri, who enlisted in the military as the scandal started to unfold further, and we finally have an answer.

Former Big Bang Singer Seungri Jailed 3 Years for Arranging Prostitution & Other Charges

After a long investigation, Seungri has been convicted of arranging prostitution for potential business investors, as well as of overseas gambling at luxurious casinos in Las Vegas that involved illicit foreign exchange transactions.

As a result, he has been sentenced to three years in jail on 12 August, Thursday. He also has to pay KRW1.15 billion (S$1.34 million) in restitution.

Seungri was heard denying most of the charges during the court hearing, and the military court said, “The defendant [Seungri] arranged sexual favours for foreign investors on many occasions in collusion with his business partner Yoo In-Suk and gained benefits as a result. His crime of commercialising sex and violating our traditional custom has caused no small harm to our society.”

Military court prosecutors also remarked in July that Seungri showed “no remorse and shifted blame to other people despite enjoying large benefits from his crimes”.

Judge Hwang Min-je also commented on this, saying “It is hard to see the defendant was not aware of financial payments paid to the women for sex. It appears that he carried out systematic sexual prostitution.”

And since Seungri often changed his testimony when he was questioned by the police and in court, the judge noted that Seungri was not credible in the things that he said.

While many are relieved and glad that he is finally paying for what he has done, some have also expressed their anger that his jail sentence is too light for his crimes.

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Featured Image: Facebook (News Asia 24) 

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Sabrina Chua
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