A South Korean military court has sentenced disgraced K-pop star Seungri to three years in prison for crimes including providing prostitutes to foreign businessmen.
The Ministry of Defense said the former member of popular boy band Big Bang was also fined 1.15 billion won ($989 thousand). He was taken into custody after being sentenced by an army court in Yongin, near Seoul.
Seungri, whose real name is Lee Seung Hyun, was indicted in January 2020 on multiple counts, including organizing illegal sexual services for business investors from Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong between 2015 and 2016. He was also found guilty of embezzling funds from a Seoul nightclub he ran and violating laws against gambling abroad. The musician has denied most of the allegations.
His case was taken to a military court after Seungri enlisted in the army last March for 21 months of military service, which is mandatory for most able-bodied men in South Korea.
Yonhap News Agency reported that Seungri appeared in court in military uniform and shook his head several times as the judge announced the verdict.
Before becoming one of the faces of the so-called “Burning” case, sun», Lee Seung Hyun was one of the biggest stars in the K-pop industry — thanks to the huge success of Big Bang debuted in 2006. Forbes magazine reported in 2016 that the group had a pre-tax profit of $44 million the year before.
Seungri left the group in 2019 after allegations of prostitution were reported by the media. According to prosecutors, throughout the process, he «showed no remorse» and «shifted the blame to others, despite the profits he received» from illegal actions.
