The apex court concluded that the sentence given to Seungri, whose real name is Lee Seung-Hyun, by the High Military Court during his appeal trial in January of this year will hold, states a report on allkpop.com.
Seungri was indicted for a total of 9 criminal charges in January of 2020, including solicitation of illegal prostitution, illegal overseas gambling, the spread of illegally filmed sexual content, embezzlement, threatening and assault, etc. The former K-Pop star was also fined 1.15 billion won ($989,000).
During his initial military court trial, Seungri received a sentence of 3 years in prison after being found guilty of all 9 charges. Shortly after the verdict, the star filed for an appeal and his sentence was reduced to 1.5 years by the High Military Court. His case was transferred to a military court after he enlisted in the army for 21 months of military service.
Furthermore, a report on Soompi says the singer was also convicted of embezzling funds from a Seoul nightclub he ran and violating laws prohibiting overseas gambling by betting heavily at foreign casinos from 2013 to 2017. He reportedly took an estimated 528 million won (approximately $417,109) from the club Burning Sun under the pretext of brand usage fees for Monkey Museum, a bar in Gangnam, and he embezzled approximately 20 million won (approximately $15,801) of company funds from Yuri Holdings under the pretext of lawyer fees for employees.
Aside from this, Seungri has been charged for using approximately 2.2 billion won (approximately $1.7 million) for gambling at a hotel-casino in Las Vegas from 2013 to 2017 and for not reporting that he loaned 1 million dollars worth of chips for gambling funds. He has also been charged with threatening a person with gangsters in December 2015.
Although Seungri, who has been in military prison since the end of his initial trial in August of 2021, was to be discharged in September last year. However, his discharge was postponed, and he was held in the military prison. He will now be removed from the military and placed in civilian prison following the Supreme Court’s ruling.
The star will now face approximately 9 months in a civilian prison and will be released in February of 2023.
