UPDATE
Seungri (Lee Seung Hyun, 31), a former BIGBANG member, was sentenced to five years in prison on nine charges, including soliciting prostitution, embezzlement, and abetting assault. He shed tears in his final statement while referring to his family and members of BIGBANG.
On the 1st, Seungri’s 25th hearing took place at the Ground Operations Command’s General Military Court in Yongin. Military prosecutors asked the judge to impose a five-year prison sentence and a 20 million won (US$18,000) fine.
[June 30th] Seungri Denies Major Allegations of Brokering Prostitution, Distributing Hidden Camera Footage, And More
Seungri attended the hearing for his trial. At the court, he strongly denied a majority of charges, including prostitution services and mediation.
On the morning of the 30th, the latest military court hearing in Seungri’s trial was held at the general court-martial of the Ground Operations Command in Yongin.
In this hearing, the court proceeded to question Seungri about his pleas. And during the first session, he denied all major charges against him, including illegal solicitation of prostitution, distribution of hidden camera footage, embezzlement, and habitual gambling.
Regarding the fact that Seungri wrote “Find an easy girl who gives well” in the group chat when a Taiwanese businesswoman visited Korea, he explained, “I recall saying ‘find a girl who knows how to have fun.’ I think I had made a typo caused by my iPhone’s autocorrection. I’m sorry, but that’s what I believe.”
And Seungri also claimed that he never took part in supplying prostitution. In particular, he pointed out that it was the former CEO of Yuri Holdings, Yoo In Seok, who independently planned on such actions. And about the allegations that prostitution took place at his house, he said, “My family lives right next door, and they frequently come over to my place because they know the password. So there’s no way I would mediate such a thing knowing that my family could barge in at any time.”
Seungri then commented on the contents of ‘Jeong Joon Young’s group chat,’ saying, “I was in many group chats, and I used about five other social media accounts. And I’ve got about 500 messages in 5 minutes. There’s no way I could keep track of them all. Since the group chat was only between a small group of friends and me, there were many inappropriate languages and comments. However, I had no idea if it would ever go out in public. I am very sorry for this incident.”
Seungri also suggested that he was under a quite brutal police investigation. “They conducted four search operations. I had to hand in six cellphones to the court,” he said. In addition, he mentioned that he had to go through the drug test to see if he had abused any substances in which they found no charges against him. Since the investigation went out on the public, he remarked, “Even before the verdict, I feel like I’ve become a criminal.”
