Ex K-pop star Seungri ‘jailed over sex and gambling scandal’
A military court jailed the disgraced former K-pop star Seungri for three years on Thursday for arranging sex services and other charges stemming from a sex and gambling scandal, according to reports.
The 30-year-old singer from the popular boyband Big Bang, who retired from showbusiness as the scandal mounted and later enlisted in the military, was found guilty on all nine counts against him, according to various media reports.
Big Bang enjoyed widespread fame after their 2006 debut, and Seungri – real name Lee Seung-hyun – went on to become a successful businessman.
He was convicted of arranging sex services for potential investors in his business, as well as overseas gambling at luxurious casinos in Las Vegas involving illicit foreign exchange transactions.
“It is hard to see the defendant was not aware of financial payments paid to the women for sex,” the judge, Hwang
Min-je, was cited as saying. “It appears that he carried out systematic sexual prostitution.”
Seungri had changed his testimony under police questioning and in court, he added, and “lacked credibility”.
The singer was also ordered to pay 1.15bn won ($1m) in restitution.
The investigation into the scandal surrounding him uncovered a spate of allegations against other musicians and personnel at YG Entertainment, Seungri’s former agency and one of K-pop’s biggest management firms.
It prompted the agency’s chief executive, Yang Hyun-suk, to step down, facing inquiries of his own into illicit gambling.
Reaction to the verdict was swift on Thursday, with many users online saying Seungri’s punishment was too light for the offences.
“While it is fortunate he is finally being jailed, the term is too short,” a user on Naver, South Korea’s largest portal, posted.
Another said: “It should’ve been 30 years, not three.”
The verdict came a month before he was due to be discharged from his mandatory military service.
All able-bodied South Korean men are obliged to fulfil about two years of military service to defend the country from nuclear-armed North Korea, with which it remains technically at war.