K-pop star receives three year prison sentence over prostitution

Popular K-pop star, Lee Seung-hyun , known as, Seungri has received a three year prison sentence. This is for sexual solicitation and gambling. 

The court also fined the former member of band, Big Bang, the sum of ₩1.15 billion ($989,000).

In January 2020, the star was indicted on several charges. The charges included organizing illegal prostitutes for investors from Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong and other countries.

According to Seungri,  he

“arranged sexual favors for foreign investors on many occasions in collusion with his business partner Yoo In-suk and gained benefits as a result. His crime of commercializing sex and violating our traditional custom has caused no small harm to our society.”

The court convicted the star of embezzling about  ₩528 million ($453,842) from his nightclub in Seoul. He also received a conviction for illegal gambling at foreign nightclubs. However, he has denied most of the charges against him.

After his band, Big Bang debuted in 2006, Seungri was one of the biggest names in the genre. However, in 2019, he left the group. This was due to  the prostitution allegations.

Seungri wrote in a post on Instagram, 

“I think I’d better leave the entertainment industry at this moment. I just cannot bear causing any further damage to people around me, while being hated and criticized by the public and being treated as a nation’s enemy during the investigation.”

Seungri’s sentence is following the case of two other mega K-pop stars, Choi Jong-hoon and Jung Joon-young. In 2019, the stars were found guilty of being involved in a non-consensual video sex scandal.

Jung Joon-young received a six-year prison sentence for his crimes. While Choi Jong-hoon received a five year sentence.