Burning Sun: Seungri needs to plead GUILTY to all 9 charges to get reduced sentence
Right when OT5 BIGBANG members were ready to move on with the remaining four members hinting at a comeback without Seungri, there might be some hope. Those who have been supporting Seungri since he changed his stance and claimed he was innocent in one of the biggest criminal cases in K-pop, finally have some good news. The former K-pop idol was embroiled in the Burning Sun scandal and was found guilty of nine charges including fraud, gambling and enabling prostitution. He had ended up getting 3-years in prison.
Initially, the prosecution had asked for 5 years in prison for Seungri when he denied eight of the charges except for violating the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act. They claimed that he was shifting blame instead of taking responsibility. However, Seungri had cried in court, apologized for worrying his group members and his fans and shared that he had allegedly been forced and manipulated by the lawyers and officers in the scene to falsely admit to all of the charges.
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Burning Sun scandal: Seungri sentenced to 3 years jail in prostitution and gambling case
Burning Sun scandal: Ex-BIGBANG member Seungri pleads innocence, prosecutors seek 5 years jail
Seungri submits appeal
The general public had turned against the former BIGBANG star because of the enabling prostitution charges which further got worse as he seems to be encouraging his clients to get with the ‘girls’ which was revealed by Dispatch allegedly leaking his chats with those involved. Following the investigation of his club Burning Sun since 2019, Seungri’s case finally might be over. On January 27, a trial regarding the sentence was held because of Seungri’s appeal. Since he had enlisted for his military service, he was being tried by the military court.
The new sentence has a catch
The ex-K-pop idol submitted an apology letter sharing that he is reflecting on his misdeeds and that he would admit to all nine of his charges. The court considered his admittance of all charges and apology and has reduced his sentence. Seungri's new sentence is a reduced jail time from 3 years to 1 year and 6 months in prison.
The former BIGBANG member's original sentence in August 2021 included 3 years in prison and a fine of 1.156 billion won ($960k). He had been found guilty of embezzlement, violation of food sanitation laws, sexual assault, illegal camera filming, solicitation of prostitution, habitual illegal gambling, illegal foreign monetary transfer, assault, etc. Seungri who is currently being held in military prison has yet to accept the new ruling. If he does, he will be in jail for another year and one month but he will have to accept that he is guilty of all nine charges officially instead of his original stance that he is innocent for eight of the charges.