Seungri, a Former South Korean Singer
Seungri, whose real name is Lee Seung Hyun, is a former South Korean singer. He started his career by debuting as a vocalist with the South Korean boy group Big Bang, under YG Entertainment in 2006. Big Bang is one of the most influential and famous boy bands in South Korea and also internationally. Besides being a singer, Seungri is also a songwriter, actor, DJ, and creative director. He made his theatrical debut with the musical “Sonagi ” in 2008. He also starred in a couple of films that were released in 2009, such as Nineteen and Why Did You Come to My House?
Seungri is a businessman and investor. He opened a dance school, managed a franchise of nightclub and restaurant, and established a record label, as well as investing in other companies. Because of some of his business concerns, he went through some scandals in South Korea. He resigned from all his management positions before his military enlistment, as required by Korean law in 2019. In this article, Channel-Korea will explain about Seungri’s cases that caused him to retire from this entertainment industry. Stay tuned.
The Conclusion of Seungri’s Case

Seungri’s case became well known to the public in early 2019 with the Burning Sun controversy. Seungri was linked to Burning Sun because he was a consultant for he club. The controversy arose when the club’s CCTV footage revealed a woman being dragged through a hallway of the club and being sexual harassed. The woman was helped by Mr. Kim, but Mr. Kim was dragged up out of the club and ended up getting beaten up by the security guards. The incident took place after Seungri had left the club.
Burning Sun Scandal
Because of this incident, Seungri posted a statement in response to the incident. He wrote a long letter on Instagram said that he sincerely apologized to everyone who felt uncomfortable or was worried due to the recent incident and controversy related to him. Because of this incident, he said that the last few days had been like an unbearable nightmare. He was not at the scene when the assault that started this controversy occurred. He first learned about the incident a few days later through a staff member, and only initially heard that there was assault on both sides between a customer and an employee, and that it was under police investigation. He hoped that this would also be resolved peacefully without a big problem.
Here’s a translation of his post.
“….I first became involved with the club when BIG BANG briefly halted promotions and I began solo promotions. Using the time outside of my solo promotions, I began with the innocent mindset of wanting to try working as a DJ, which is something I had wanted to do, at a place where I could freely play music at any time.
Just in time, I got a good opportunity to become an executive director in charge of promotions at a club. Since I’m a celebrity, I was in charge of publicly promoting the club.
Operating and managing the club were not my roles, and I am reflecting and deeply apologize for not showing myself taking responsibility from the beginning of the incident, as I was not involved in these roles from the start.
The issue that began with an assault case is now being covered with reports about drugs. I have not seen or heard anything related to this, so I’ll actively cooperate with investigations and hope that strict punishment will be carried out if a crime is revealed through the investigation. I’ll also take full responsibility if there is something I need to be responsible for as an executive director at the time.
While going through this incident, I learned and realized a lot once more about the responsibility and attitude of a celebrity. I apologize once again to everyone for causing concern through this incident, and will work hard to become more mature and considerate.
Respectfully,
Seungri, Lee Seung Hyun“
Violating Anti-Prostitution Law
Not long after the Burning Sun scandal, Seungri was involved in another case. SBS funE released text messages between Seungri, the CEO Yoo of Yuri Holdings (an investment company Seungri was preparing to establish), and an employee. It was revealed that the context of the text messages were talking about hiring prostitutes for foreign business investors. The news was clarified by Yuri Holdings through an official statement, “The text messages that have become an issue are all completely false, and we believe someone with malicious intent towards Seungri and our company has fabricated these text messages as a grudge and sent them to reporters. This is fake news that has been published without being confirmed.” After a police investigation of that incident, on March 10, 2019, Seungri was booked on charges of violating the law on the punishment of prostitution mediation and other related actions.
Illegal Hidden Camera Footage & Alleged Connection Between The Police
The SBS funE reporter has released more text messages including Seungri and two other male singers. The report stated that there were up to 10 incidents where photos and pictures taken illegally were exchanged in the chat room.
Based on the chatroom, lawyer Bang Jung Hyun said that there was suspicion of corruption by the police. he said at an interview with SBS, “It was data containing connections with several governmental authorities, and I was especially suspicious about the connection with the police. I was doubtful about how justly the investigation would have been handled if I had handed it over to the police.”
Habitual Gambling
The media outlet Sisa Journal revealed messages providing signs that Seungri was involved in pathological gambling abroad. It has been confirmed that according to the police, Seungri confessed to some of the allegations of gambling during interrogation.
As of now, Seungri has been charged for seven cases since 2019. These charges include the gambling, prostitution services, illegal foreign currency trade, etc.
Is He Actually Innocent?

Out of all his statements and evidence gathered by the prosecutor, do you think he’s the guilty one or the innocent one? Check out some netizen reactions to Seungri’s case.
i don’t think some of you truly comprehend that what seungri has been accused of is a sex crime. it isn’t just another idol scandal. women have potentially been sold for sex, which often involves rape and abuse. pray for them, not him. his guilt means their suffering.
— ˗ˏˋ H ˊˎ˗ (@wondershidae) March 11, 2019
So now "booked" by the police don't mean guilt its just standard procedure but FOR MONTHS y'all been calling Seungri guilty for being "booked" telling him to go to jail or be electric chaired while dropping y'all irrelevant useless fancams.
Fuck y'all.
— ɢᴏʟᴅ ᴀɴᴅ ᴅɪᴀᴍᴏɴᴅꜱ ✨ (@StacyKwon8) November 8, 2019
Account @umudovaj on Twitter make a thread about the answers to Koreans who still think Seungri was Burning Sun’s owner and Kim Sang Kyo is a hero. Check out the tweets.
김상교의 친구들이 김상교랑 우정을 끝내었어요. 왜냐하면 김상교가 기자 친구들을 남용하고 거짓 소식을 전했어요. 근데 당신들 범인라고 했던 승리의 친구들이 아직도 승리의 편에 있고 승리는 순진한하고 좋은사람이 라고 했습니다. pic.twitter.com/edWmaKeunK
— jalə ³⁵ (@umudovaj) May 24, 2020
On a pann discussion with the same topic about Kim Sang Kyo and Seungri’s cases, someone commented, [+28, -2] “This needs to be properly exposed. Last time too, kids like Seungri all fell in the hate trap and fell from their high ranks. Fyi, Kim Sang Kyo is the whistle blower who exposed the police corruption with Seungri during the scandal of Burning Sun.”
asked them to let him fight his own battle to prove his innocence.
— Shai⁵ (@shaicology) May 24, 2020
Account @poutyvip5lines on twitter talked about why they’re still supporting Seungri. They also said in a tweet, “I don’t know how people fail to notice that I support seungri…If you follow me you need to know that I support seungri and I am OT5, if you don’t like it unfollow me, in case you want to know why I and others support him this is a thread that explains everything.”
I woke up thinking that I am happy because seungri has people who support him in his life. Thinking also of the fact that everything will be fine just seeing how much his friends and family love him so much. I am confident to the max.
— nini🌸. ³⁵ -204 (@poutyvip5lines) May 22, 2020
Do you want to know why we support seungri? here is one of the answers:
Fan: we waiting for bigbang 5 members
Taeyang: i know
Fan: Please tell seungri that waiting for him
Taeyang: I'll do my best.Taeyang best boy. #DarlingTaeyangDay pic.twitter.com/xTVquf49zB
— nini🌸. ³⁵ -204 (@poutyvip5lines) May 17, 2020
The account made a thread about Seungri’s case. Check it out!
❗❗❗ATTENTION ❗❗❗
This is a thread on the whole Seungri case.
You are free to read it and get informed because I will put all the necessary evidence to clarify everything.— nini🌸. ³⁵ -204 (@poutyvip5lines) April 1, 2020
I'm thinking a lot about what Akira and DJ Ruppy said back then.
His friends always say about how pure, selfless, honest, and responsible he is as a person. 🥺😭#ApologizeToSeungri #TakeCareSeungri #StandBySeungri #GoodLuckToSeungri pic.twitter.com/Ja7WB1dSrJ
— Jes. ☘⁶⁶⁶ (@pandacondae) May 15, 2020
VIPs don't blindly support Seungri. We aren't "hoping he becomes a better person" nor are we "defending his crimes." We have receipts. We've followed his case. Many of us waited months before supporting him because we wanted to ensure he was innocent. Don't tell us otherwise.
— #BLACK_LIVES_MATTER (@YILJIDO) May 23, 2020