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What is Yang Hyun-suk's net worth? How Burning Sun scandal took a toll on YG Entertainment's former CEO

He was cleared of all charges on October 28 after a second hearing of the case where he was only charged for gambling at a Las Vegas casino betting a total of $335,460

Yang Hyun-suk, the founder and former CEO of YG Entertainment, one of the biggest entertainment moguls of South Korea, has found himself dragged in a number of scandals over the years but by far, Burning Sun has caused the most damage.

Hyun-suk, whose projected net worth is over $159 million, was one of the accused in the biggest K-pop scandal — Burning Sun — involving sexual exploitation of young women, gambling, prostitution and more. However, he was cleared of all charges on October 28 after a second hearing of the case where he was charged for gambling at a Las Vegas casino betting a total of $335,460 between July 2015 and January 2019. 

During the final trial, Hyun-suk was charged a lumpsum fine of 10 million KRW ($8,865) for the allegations against him. "I'm sorry for causing concern because of my carelessness. I sincerely reflected on this matter. I will never repeat the same mistake again," he said at the end of the hearing.

The co-founder of the giant Kpop label went under investigation last year when his name came up in the Burning Sun scandal along with Seungri, the Big Bang member and co-owner of Burning Sun along with other employees of YG. Amid the sea of controversies, he resigned but YG entertainment took the biggest blow in business as public opinions went against them regarding their employees’ alleged active involvement in the case.

In his official statement released regarding the case, he denied his involvement in any Burning Sun controversy stating, "our artistes' operations of their personal businesses are completely unrelated to YG, so it was an awkward situation for YG to speak out and give an official statement, and there was also a lot of difficulty in finding out the truth. The difficulty was that I have never gone to this club and do not know any of the people related to the club, so I did not have a way to ask someone about the details of this incident."

Hyun-suk also spoke about Seungri’s alleged involvement in the case, "The only person I could ask was Seungri, and I found out that on the day of the incident, Seungri was at the scene until 3 am on November 24, and the incident occurred past 6 am. The reason why Seungri recently resigned as an executive director of the club was in order to comply with laws regarding military service as his military enlistment is approaching in March or April."

However, Hyun-suk showed his sincere effort in cooperating with the investigation of the case, and in June 2020, reports revealed that Hyun-suk will be indicted with a summary judgment where he will be paying a fine or penalty without a formal trial. A source from the prosecution revealed, “Considering judicial precedents regarding habitual gambling and the number of times [Yang Hyun-suk] gambled, we decided that the charges of habitual gambling were not valid.” The amount of fine that will be charged was not made public then.

As Hyun-suk was cleared of the charges, loyal YG followers seemed to stand behind him. One user wrote, “They were never involved, they were dragged into the burning sun gate bc they were the bigger names, all the real perpetrators are in jail, except the sexual harrasser ksk And Im using burning sun gate as an umbrella term for all the cases the media mixed together.”

Another commented, “Like the damaged they cause to them like imagine the trauma all the hates they got and still getting from those misinformed pips imagine being dragged by literally half of the populations of SK and other parts of the world for something u didn't do? Traumatic” and another claimed, “For real. Kpop comunity nowadays is saying bunch of accusation with no evidences. Which make their opinion have zero relevance. They ain’t interested in proving us wrong. Never.”

As Seungri awaits the completion of his military trial, fans are demanding a fair judgment for him as well. “Can they sue everyone who defame Seungri? Like dudes really ruined his career, those media outlets who totally twisted every headlines during that time, esp that effing reporter or idk what to call her I forgot and everyone involved in setting seungri's up?” a fan said,

Another said, “No charges for YG and SEUNGRI Because they had nothing to do with the crime F**kers!!! I don't even like YG but when a person is Innocent he will not get charged PERIOD! And for Seungri I knew it from the beginning my Oppa is the Kindest human being #SEUNGRI #ApologizetoSeungri”

Seungri is currently serving his mandatory military duties and going through a military trial for all the eight charges against him regarding his involvement in the case.