Disgraced K-pop star Seungri was sentenced to jail for offences related to prostitution and gambling on Aug. 12.
The former Big Bang singer, whose real name is Lee Seung-hyun, has been on trial in military court since Mar. 2020 as he had previously enlisted in the army, South Korean media Yonhap News Agency reported.
Arranged prostitutes for foreign investors
Big Bang is famous for helping to spread K-pop music internationally, and its members have been dubbed the "Kings of K-pop".
Seungri left the entertainment industry in Mar. 2019 following his involvement in the massive Burning Sun sex scandal, which also included other celebrities like solo singer Jung Joon-young, Choi Jong-hoon of F.T. Island, and Lee Jong-hyun of CNBLUE.
The 30-year-old was the owner of the Burning Sun nightclub in Seoul, where rape, prostitution and drug trafficking had allegedly occurred.
The scandal broke when a video of a girl allegedly being assaulted in the club surfaced in Jan. 2019.
Seungri was jailed for three years on multiple charges, including prostitution mediation and illegal gambling overseas at casinos in Las Vegas which involved illicit foreign exchange transactions.
According to AFP and Yonhap, he had arranged prostitutes from Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong and other countries for foreign investors on 24 occasions over five months from September 2015.
He was also charged with misappropriating about 528 million won (S$613,561) from club funds. Additionally, he had gambled in Las Vegas from December 2013 to August 2017 with a total of 2.2 billion won (S$2.56 million).
"No remorse"
Seungri denied most of the charges during court, claiming that his business partner was responsible for the prostitution and that he had not visited the U.S. to gamble.
Jung also appeared as a witness in Seungri's trial, testifying that he was aware that an adult entertainment manager who Seungri knew had provided the women.
South China Morning Post reported that Seungri was required to pay 1.15 billion won (S$1.34 million) in restitution.
"It is hard to see the defendant was not aware of financial payments paid to the women for sex," AFP reported judge Hwang Min-je as saying.
Military prosecutors initially demanded a sentence of five years' imprisonment and a fine of 20 million won (S$23,241) in a hearing on July 21.
They said that Seungri has "shown no remorse", and continued to shift blame to others "despite enjoying large benefits from his crimes".
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Top photo from seungriseyo / IG