Scandalized K-pop star Seungri has a record but this one won’t be going platinum. Fans were devastated to learn of the three year jail sentence handed down by a military court in South Korea. The Big Bang band member was nailed “organizing prostitutes for investors, embezzlement, bribery, illegal gambling, and violation of foreign currency exchange and food hygiene laws.” It’s those “food hygiene” charges that did him in. It seems he was using Bill Cosby’s Quaaludes in the pudding pops trick.
Star behind bars
Lee Seung-hyun was all set to make a fortune as K-pop star “Seungri.” He already had quite a collection of Gangnam style groupies.
The South Korean military frowns on drugged out playboys. He was in the middle of his mandatory service when the whole thing came crashing down. The military tribunal has no sympathy at all and ordered him to spend the next three years behind bars.
He was arrested in 2020 but allowed to run loose on his own recognizance for the past two years. He became a falling star back in March of 2019 though, when the investigation was revealed.
Until then, he was touted as “one of K-pop’s biggest stars.” His exit was considered by all to be “dramatic.”
Every male in South Korea is expected to serve in their military and he was doing his term of service when arrested. Because of that, all the legal procedures “were conducted by a military court.”
The star still swears up and down that he’s innocent of most charges against him. He claims he was just a small fish hauled in by a big net.
A Gangnam neighborhood club
As reported by Reuters, Seungri’s indictment and sentencing arose from the “Burning Sun scandal,” which refers to “a nightclub in Seoul’s glitzy Gangnam neighborhood.”
The star “sat on the board of the club, and oversaw its publicity.” A lot like Hunter Biden’s job with Burisma, he didn’t do much. It was just on paper.
The way the Seoul Metropolitan Police see it, “Burning Sun was the site of bribery, violence against customers, securing prostitutes for VIPs, rape, drug trafficking and drug use.” Okay, so the star did like to party.
“Numerous women have come forward with claims of being assaulted or drugged at the club.” Usually it was assaulted while drugged, like the Cosby case. The police shut down the club and “a handful of high-profile figures have been affected by the scandal.”
As the investigation got going, the police uncovered “an online group chat that shared sexually explicit videos of women filmed without their knowledge and consent.” That trail led to Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon. Both K-pop stars. They got “six and five years in jail respectively.”
Meanwhile Seungri argues that every star in the industry is just as guilty as he is. He seems to be right too. “The scandal has prompted questions over how stars in South Korea’s multibillion-dollar entertainment industry treat women — and reflects broader issues of illicit recordings, sexual harassment and voyeurism in South Korean society.”
