The Supreme Court’s decision on Seungri, a former member of the group BIGBANG, who was handed over to trial on charges of gambling abroad and arranging prostitution, will come out on May 26th.
According to the legal community on May 26th, the first division of the Supreme Court (Chief Judge Roh Tae Ak) held a trial on the morning of the same day that Seungri, who was indicted on charges of violating the Habitual Gambling and Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, and violating the Punishment Act (prostitution and prostitution brokerage, filming using cameras, etc.).
Seungri was handed over to trial on charges of habitual gambling with a total stake of $1883,000 (about 2.22 billion won) over eight times at a casino located in Las Vegas, USA from December 2013 to August 2017.
In addition, he was charged with borrowing chips worth 1 million dollars (about 1.18 billion won) from the casino management to gamble at the casino and not reporting it to the government (violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act) as stipulated by laws and regulations.
In addition, he was also charged with prostitution with two women from September 2015 to January 2016 (prostitution) for a total of 24 times (prostitution, etc.) to foreign investors and two times from September to December 2015 (prostitution).
In December 2016, there is also an allegation of sending body photos of three Chinese women whose names remain unknown to five men, including singer Jung Joon-young, through KakaoTalk (photographed using cameras, etc.).
In addition, they were also charged with operating an entertainment pub without permission (violation of the Food Sanitation Act) and embezzling 530 million won of Burning Sun funds in the name of Monkey Museum brand royalties and consulting expenses (violation of the Special Law).
During the first trial, Seungri denied all charges except for the charge of violating the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act. At the sentencing hearing held in August last year, the ordinary military court found Lee guilty of all nine charges and sentenced him to three years in prison. He was also ordered to pay a fine of 1,156,900,000 won.
At the time, the court said, “The charges of arranging prostitution for foreign investors are proven. In light of the size of the gambling funds, etc., we can admit the habit.”
“Seungri stated that the investigative agency said that his credit amount was up to $1 million and that he gave it to the Japanese in exchange for chips, etc. “, he added.
After the verdict of the first instance, both Seungri and the prosecution appealed. In January, the High Military Court accepted Lee’s claim that the sentence was unfair, overturned the first trial and sentenced him to one year and six months in prison.
The court said that the sentence was decided in consideration of the fact that Seungri admitted most of the charges and showed an attitude of remorse, and that an agreement was reached with the victim.
However, regarding the additional collection, the chips used in the casino do not fall under the external means of payment, so they confiscated them and the amount equivalent to the chips could not be collected.
After the second trial, Seungri appealed only to the habitual gambling charges.
He was found guilty because he did not appeal the charges such as prostitution and embezzlement. The prosecution filed an appeal, stating that the amount equivalent to casino chips should be additionally collected in relation to the alleged violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act.
Previously, Seungri was indicted at the Seoul Central District Court in 2020, but the case was transferred to the Military Court in May of the same year as he enlisted in the military. On August 12 last year, Seungri was sentenced to three years in prison and detained in court.
Seungri, who enlisted in March 2020, was due to be discharged on September 16, last year, but was put on hold in accordance with the Military Service Act, and is currently serving as an army sergeant and imprisoned in the Armed Forces Prison as an untrial.
If the Supreme Court dismisses the appeal on that day and the sentence is confirmed, Seungri will be transferred to a private correctional facility, where he will spend the remaining nine months of his sentence until February next year.
