page_title: Burning Sun scandal
section_title: Seungri's business partner admits to hiring prostitutes, and first arrest warrant fails
hierarchical_section_title: Burning Sun scandal / Development / April 1 – end of year / Seungri's business partner admits to hiring prostitutes, and first arrest warrant fails
caption_attribution_description: English: Burning Sun nightclub protest, Sinnonhyeon Station Exit 6, (Le Méridien Hotel), Gangnam-gu, Seoul, May 25, 2019. Cropped from the original which had unconsented people on the street.
context_page_description: The Burning Sun scandal, also known as Burning Sun gate, is a 2019 entertainment and sex scandal in Seoul, South Korea, which involved several celebrities, including Korean idols of popular K-pop groups, and police officials. It was the largest scandal to hit the K-pop industry. The allegations of sex crimes involved added to the country's "epidemic" of what is called molka, a Korean word for the online distribution of unconsented sex videos taken of women, and the scandal became fodder for political parties, who argued over how to handle it.
  It began on January 28, 2019, when MBC Newsdesk reported a November 2018 alleged assault of a male clubgoer at the Burning Sun, a prominent nightclub in Gangnam, by a staff member. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency investigation soon turned to one concerning the club's alleged involvement in prostitution, drug trafficking and police corruption. Seungri of the band Big Bang, one of the club's directors, subsequently resigned from the entertainment industry on March 11, 2019, after being charged with sex bribery.
context_section_description: On April 1, SMPA announced they had booked Seungri and Yoo for allegations of embezzlement from the Monkey Museum club, which they opened in 2016. Later allegations stated that funds from Yuri Holdings were used to pay attorney fees for a criminal case involving an employee of the club. On April 29, a Chosun Ilbo headline, "Seung-ri's Business Partner Admits Pimping", followed Seungri and Yoo's new questioning by SMPA, in which Seungri continued to deny any involvement with prostitution, and Yoo finally admitted that he supplied prostitutes to six or more Japanese investors at their Gangnam nightclub in December 2015. SMPA had paper trails of money transactions, a YG Entertainment credit card payment by Seungri and a wire transfer by Yoo, and chat room conversations the two had with Jung about the arrangements; and had booked 17 prostitutes and pimps related to the incidents. Seungri was summoned for questioning about alleged embezzlement of the Burning Sun club's funds for the first time, on May 2, following sixteen prior interrogations about his alleged arrangement of sexual services for investors.
  On May 7 SMPA requested arrest warrants, to include pre-trial detention, for Seungri and Yoo, and they appeared at May 14 hearings, on charges of embezzling company funds and arranging sexual services for foreign investors, along with a new charge that Seungri had paid for sexual services himself. Seungri admitted that he received illicit sex services but denied all other allegations at the Seoul Central District Court hearing, and was led to a holding cell in ropes to await the decision, which came later in the evening, when both arrest warrants were denied, with the court citing "room for dispute" over the alleged embezzlement, and said the possibility of destroying evidence was slim. SMPA referred Seungri's case to prosecutors on June 25, with charges related to 1.1 billion won (US$951,000) in embezzlement, destruction of evidence, violation of laws on sex trade, sexual crimes and food hygiene. Allegations included procuring prostitutes for himself and for others from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan from December 2015 to January 2016. His business partner Yoo was also referred to prosecutors for procuring prostitutes.
  MBC TV's May 27 show Straight introduced new allegations and another celebrity name to the scandal. It alleged that YG Entertainment's founder Yang Hyun-suk had arranged sexual services for foreign investors in July 2014, which he and the company denied. SMPA began an investigation based on the show's details of an alleged dinner meeting in Gangnam and a trip to a nightclub NB, affiliated with Yang, that included Yang, age 50, a Malaysian fugitive Jho Low, age 38, a Thai national named Bob (Chavanos Rattakul), a YG singer, a Madam Jung, Hwang Ha-na; and as many as 10 prostitutes, who allegedly provided sexual services at the nightclub. Singer Psy, age 42, who was with YG Entertainment at the time, released a statement that he had introduced his friend Jho Low to Yang, and admitted that he and Yang had been invited to the dinner and drinks with Low and the other man. Allegations also referenced a December 2018 rape complaint at the Burning Sun against Rattakul, one of the foreign investors also affiliated with Seungri, and who had been summoned by police. In June, Yang was questioned by police about the prostitution allegations but not taken in as a suspect and Psy was questioned as a witness about the July 2014 incident, which statute of limitations was soon to expire. On July 17, SMPA reported having booked Yang for allegations of arranging sexual services for the foreign investors in 2014, along with three more suspects for prostitution allegations; but dropped the charges against Yang on September 20, stating that they had failed to prove them.
  A prior allegation of Seungri's possible gambling overseas was reignited by an August 9, JTBC report alleging instances of Yang and Seungri having gambled up to 1 to 2 billion won at the MGM Grand Las Vegas on past occasions. SMPA said they were examining Yang's finan
caption: MBC TV covering a Burning Sun protest rally, Le Méridien Hotel subway exit, Gangnam, May 25, 2019.
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