Sex Scandal: Former K-Pop Star Seungri Sentenced To 3 Years In Prison

Following sex and gambling scandal, a former K-Pop star, Lee Seung-Hyun popularly known as Seungri has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Gatekeepers News reports that a former member of K-pop boy band Big Bang, Seungri who was accused of arranging sexual services for rich clients at his Burning Sun nightclub in Seoul has been sentenced to three years in prison on Thursday.

Seungri, 31 was sentenced on multiple charges including prostitution mediation.

The South Korean Defense Ministry also stated that Seungri was also fined 1.15 billion won ($989,000).

Yonhap and other local media reported that the musician was found guilty of nine charges which include overseas gambling from December 2013 to August 2017, providing sex workers to foreign investors from Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, and other countries, and embezzling funds worth close to 528 million from the Seoul nightclub he operated.

The court said: “The defendant arranged prostitution for foreign investors several times and obtained profits from it.”

Following the ruling, Lee who has been fulfilling his mandatory national military service since March 2020, was sentenced by a military court in Yongin, near Seoul, and was taken into custody immediately.

Although Lee denied most of the charges during the hearings, claiming his business partner was responsible for the prostitution and that he did not visit the U.S. for gambling.

On July 2, military prosecutors during the previous hearing, demanded a five-year prison sentence for Lee, adding that he has “shown no remorse and shifted blame to other people despite enjoying large benefits from his crimes.”

He was one of the country’s biggest K-pop stars following the success of Big Bang, which debuted in 2006.

In 2019, Lee left the band and retired from the entertainment industry after the allegations around the Burning Sun scandal in February that year.