Seungri is sentenced to three years in prison.
Former BIGBANG member Seungri was sentenced to three years in prison at a military court for arranging prostitution for foreign investors and gambling abroad. The artist enlisted in the military in March last year and is due to be discharged next month.
On Thursday, the general military court sentenced Seungri, who was indicted on nine charges, including prostitution, habitual gambling, and abetting assault, to three years in prison. He was also fined 1.15 billion KRW (about $984,800).
The court stated, “The defendant solicited prostitution for foreign investors several times and obtained profits from it.” Regarding Seungri’s argument of “not having the motive for arranging prostitution,” the court refused to accept and added, “The crimes committed by the accused, who commercialized sex and violated customs, are not small in social harm.”
Seungri was indicted on charges of soliciting prostitution for Taiwan, Japan, and Hong Kong investors from December 2015 to January 2016 and using the prostitution service himself. He is also charged with embezzling 500 million KRW (about $428,200) from his club Burning Sun and spending 2.2 billion KRW (about $1,884,000) on gambling in Las Vegas. And on this day, the court found both charges to be guilty.
Dressed in his military uniform, Seungri shook his head as if he could not admit the charges whenever the court found him guilty of nine charges. Seungri will be placed in the detention center of the 55th Division Military Police Force.
Later the same day, Seungri’s fandom released a statement in support of the artist.
“Many fans loved Seungri because he was always passionate and self-sacrificing on the stage and TV. And Seungri played a key role in helping BIGBANG raise K-pop’s name worldwide,” they wrote. “However, as Seungri has been involved in several incidents since two years ago and started having a difficult time, the fans’ journey has also been rocky.”
They continued, “Though Seungri left BIGBANG, fans still cheered and supported him. And because we worship Seungri’s confidence, we did not doubt that he would overcome this ordeal safely. However, on the afternoon of the 12th, the military court sentenced him to three years in prison and imposed a fine of 1.15 billion KRW.”
“The reality of having to look at the droopy back of a star who used to shine bright breaks the fans’ hearts. But we will humbly accept this, believing that it’ll be an opportunity for him to reflect on his mistakes,” they added.
The fandom finished their lengthy statement with the following sentence. “Please, we sincerely hope that Seungri will not give up until the very end.”
Translator Kim Hoyeun: If you are a fan of K-drama, K-movie, and K-pop, I am your guy. I will continue to provide you with up-to-date K-entertainment news. �
[…] There are Seungri’s 9 charges: habitual illegal gambling, solicitation of prostitution, assistance in the solicitation of prostitution, violation of sexual crime laws through the spread of illegal sexual content via SNS, breach of business finance regulations, violation of food sanitation laws, embezzlement, illegal foreign monetary transactions, and abetting assault. If Seungri does not appeal within one week, he will be forcibly discharged from the army and then imprisoned. […]
[…] Seungri was sentenced to three years in prison for arranging prostitution and was also fined 1.15 billion KRW (about $984,800). Since then, […]