Ok-pop star Seungri sentenced to three years in jail in prostitution case
A South Korean army court docket sentenced disgraced Ok-pop star Seungri to 3 years in jail on Thursday for crimes together with offering prostitutes to international businessmen.
The Protection Ministry mentioned the previous member of the boy band Large Bang was additionally fined 1.15 billion gained ($989,000). He was taken into custody after the ruling by a military court docket in Yongin, close to Seoul.
Seungri, whose actual title is Lee Seung-hyun, was indicted in January 2020 on a number of prices, together with arranging unlawful sexual providers for enterprise traders from Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong from 2015 to 2016. He was additionally convicted of embezzling funds from a Seoul nightclub he ran and violating legal guidelines prohibiting abroad playing by betting closely at international casinos from 2013 to 2017. He denied many of the prices.
His case was transferred to a army court docket after he enlisted within the military in March final yr for 21 months of army service, a requirement for many able-bodied males in South Korea due to the risk from rival North Korea.
Yonhap information company reported that Seungri appeared in court docket in a fight uniform and shook his head repeatedly because the choose introduced the decision.
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Earlier than his fall from grace, Seungri was one of many largest stars in Ok-pop due to the success of Large Bang, which attracted enormous followings in Asia and different elements of the world after its debut in 2006. Forbes journal reported in 2016 that the group had made $44 million in pretax earnings the earlier yr.
Seungri left the group in 2019 after the media reported the prostitution accusations. His case is one among a number of scandals which have roiled South Korea’s leisure business in recent times.
In 2019, singer Jung Joon-young acquired a six-year jail time period and former boy band member Choi Jong-hoon a five-year time period after they had been discovered responsible of illicit sexual relations with a girl who was unable to withstand.
