Former K-pop star and ex-Big Bang member Seungri has been sentenced to three years in jail on multiple charges, including arranging prostitution and gambling.
The 30-year-old singer, who retired from the entertainment industry in 2019 at the height of the Burning Sun scandal, was found guilty of nine different counts against him by a military court earlier today (August 12), according to local media reports, per TODAY.
According to Yonhap News Agency, among the counts are convictions for procuring prostitutes for investors from December 2015 to January 2016, misappropriating about ₩528million (roughly £327,000) from his nightclub’s funds and habitual gambling. As the news outlet notes, Seungri had denied a majority of the charges during the hearings.
“It is hard to see the defendant was not aware of financial payments paid to the women for sex,” judge Hwang Min-je was cited as saying, per TODAY. “It appears that he carried out systematic sexual prostitution.”
Aside from the three-year jail sentence, Seungri has also been ordered by the court to pay ₩1.15billion (roughly £700,000) in restitution.
As reported last month, Seungri was originally facing a five-year jail sentence as part of his alleged involvement in the Burning Sun scandal in 2019. At the time, South Korean military prosecutors also reportedly requested a fine of ₩20million (roughly £12,800) for the former idol.
The Burning Sun nightclub was the setting for a controversy in 2019 that encompassed allegations of rape and spycam usage. It also involved a number of the Korean entertainment industry’s biggest names. Aside from Seungri, singer Jung Joon-young and CNBLUE’s Lee Jong Hyun and former Highlight member Yong Jun-hyung were also linked to the controversy.
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