Burning Sun scandal

The Burning Sun scandal, also known as Burning Sun gate, was 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 sexual bribery.

The scandal quickly encompassed allegations of rape and spy cams when singer and entertainer Jung Joon-young confessed to secretly filming himself having sex with women and sharing the videos, without their knowledge or consent, in the Jung Joon-young KakaoTalk chatrooms, and he resigned from the entertainment industry on March 12, 2019. While looking into the Burning Sun scandal, SBS funE had discovered videos dated from 2015 to 2016, as well as conversations he shared in chat groups on the social media app KakaoTalk with Seungri, and acquaintances. The chatroom exposé immediately affected a few celebrities, and more as the case developed. On March 14, Yong Jun-hyung of Highlight and Choi Jong-hoon of F.T. Island resigned from their positions, after allegations they were participants in the chatrooms, and the agency for Lee Jong-hyun of CNBLUE admitted his involvement on March 15.

On International Women's Day, March 8, 2019, the scandal led to a street protest in Gangnam against the Burning Sun and other nightclubs, calling for an end to what the protesters called a culture that treats women as sexual objects. Although thousands of women had rallied in 2018 against illicit filming and sharing, the allegations against the idealized image of pop idols still surprised the public. The serious nature of the scandal prompted a response from President Moon Jae-in, who ordered a thorough investigation.

Legal proceedings for criminal investigations generated by the scandal continued into 2021. Although several police officers were disciplined for their actions involving the Burning Sun club, the two highest profile cases resulted in trial acquittals. Burning Sun's co-CEO, Lee Sung-hyun, testified that he had paid a former police officer Kang to cover for an underage clubgoer incident, but Kang's one-year prison sentence was overturned for lack of evidence that he had received the money. Also, a well publicized case involved a senior police official, Yoon Gyu-geun, who was arrested for allegations of bribery and mediating favors for the Burning Sun club, and others, which ended with an innocent verdict at his first trial. Among other verdicts, Burning Sun's co-CEO, Lee Moon-ho, was sentenced to a year in prison for habitual drug use, including ecstasy and ketamine in Gangnam clubs, and one of the club's promoters, MD Cho, four years and six months for drug use and smuggling. Due to public interest in the scandal, police conducted drug sweeps at entertainment venues that yielded hundreds of drug related arrests, a large percentage involving ecstasy and GHB, a common date rape drug; along with cases of sexual assault and rape, and the filming of illegal videos during drug use.

Seungri's business associate, Yoo In-seok, admitted to providing their potential Japanese investors with prostitutes and received a suspended sentence of three years probation for that and an embezzlement charge. Seungri's entertainment agency head, Yang Hyun-suk, admitted to gambling and illegal money transactions in Las Vegas casinos and was sentenced to paying a fine at trial, along with three YG and YGX associates. Seungri's case concluded in January 2022, in a military appeals court, with a reduced prison sentence of one year and a half and a fine. The nine charges included habitual gambling overseas and illegal money transactions, prostitution mediation and purchase, violence instigation, violation of the Specific Economic Crimes Act, embezzlement, sharing illicit photos, and a business operations violation.

Background

Burning Sun nightclub

The Burning Sun nightclub, (Hangul: 클럽 버닝썬, Club Burning Sun), opened at the Le Méridien Seoul hotel in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, on February 23, 2018, and closed during the investigation of the scandal on February 17, 2019. The upscale hotel had just replaced the Ritz Carlton Hotel and opened in September 2017, months before the Burning Sun's opening. The nightclub was often called "Seungri's Club", due to its affiliation with K-pop idol Seungri of Big Bang.

The Burning Sun advertised itself as, “the most elegant and finest club in South Korea". It included a basement level for EDM, a second level for hip hop, VIP admittance, 60 VIP tables near the DJ box and stage, spacious dance floors and accommodation for 1000 guests. The drink menu listed Armand de Brignac champagne and Louis XIII cognac sets, priced in the thousands of dollars. The sound system was set up by Funktion-One, a specialized overseas company, whose sound expert, Tony Andrews, was invited to the club for sound tuning. Seungri served as one of the DJs, along with other local and visiting guest artists like R3hab.

The club's CEOs were Lee Moon-ho and Lee Sung-hyun, a former board member of the company that operated the Le Méridien Seoul hotel. Seungri was one of seven in-house directors, and resigned from his position in January 2019. Seungri was the co-founder of Yuri Holdings, a shareholder of Burning Sun Entertainment that operated the club. which owned as much as 20 percent in shares, and which was established in March 2016, with Yoo In-seok, to manage his restaurant and entertainment businesses. Seungri resigned from his position in mid February and Yoo resigned on March 13. Seungri described his relationship to the club in an interview with ''The Chosun Ilbo'', published on March 22, 2019, saying that CEO Lee Moon-ho, a friend of his, was the operator of the club and in charge, while Seungri's name was used for marketing, after his initial investment of 10 million won (around US$8,800). In the interview, Seungri said the breakdown of Burning Sun's shares were as follows: owners of Le Méridien Seoul, 42 percent; Lee Sung-hyun (CEO of Le Méridien Seoul), 8 percent; Yuri Holdings, 20 percent, Madam Lin (Taiwanese investor), 20 percent; and Lee Moon-ho, 10 percent.

Other clubs

Monkey Museum was the first Gangnam club to associate Seungri's name, and opened on July 27, 2016, in the upscale neighborhood of Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu. It was a trendy hip hop lounge-style bar, co-owned by Seungri, Yoo and a group of K-pop singers. During the scandal's investigation, it became one of the first non-relevant charges against Seungri, of illegal operation as a bar, while it was registered as a restaurant; and later involved allegations of embezzlement of funds by Seungri and Yoo.

Arena (or Club Arena) was a dance club that opened in 2014 in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu. It was known as a TV and sports celebrity hang-out, had a reputation for a very strict dress code, and could accommodate 700 guests with separate EDM and hip hop dance floors.
It was another club Seungri was affiliated with, and where he was alleged to have made arrangements for investors to receive sexual favors. The owner, last name Kang, and another of the club's operators, were arrested on tax evasion charges during the scandal's investigation.

Seungri's background as a businessman

The club's scandal was heightened in the media, exacerbated by Seungri's wide popularity and his possible business connections to it. He had developed a second career in business, and the nightclub business was not his first business venture, having been preceded by several others: a Japanese ramen restaurant chain, cosmetics, a Belgian waffle cafe, and a record company co-founded with his agency YG Entertainment. He invested in biotechnology and nanotechnology and the development of masks for yellow dust protection, and failed at real estate and electronic businesses. He closed his successful vocal and dance academy, the Joy Dance – Plug In Music Academy, which he first opened in 2011, in his home town of Gwangju, with branches around South Korea, after some parents complained about an "overly friendly" teacher-student relationship at one location. In November 2018, he entered the IT sector when he became the Creative Director and model for HeadRock VR, a franchise brand of the AR product company SocialNetwork and affiliate Mediafront; and assisted in the opening of the Headrock VR theme park in Singapore.

Seungri who used a stage name that means "victory" in Korean, his real name is Lee Seung-hyun, at the age of 28, was the youngest member of Big Bang; having debuted at age 15. Just before the scandal broke, he released his first solo Korean language studio album in July 2018, and was conducting his first solo tour, The Great Seungri, after 13 years as a group member. He was filling the void for the band's hiatus while all remaining four members were in military service, and waiting for his own enlistment in March.

Jessica Oak at ''Billboard'' wrote, "Seungri has forged and built an empire all his own during his 13 years in the industry. The superstar has become known as a thriving entrepreneur with business ventures in food, nightlife and music labels". He had been the subject of a popular TV show on SBS, about his life and businesses, filmed "speaking four languages and throwing lavish parties in luxury resorts." In August 2018, Baik Su-jin, a journalist at ''The Chosun Ilbo'', described his story, among other rich celebrities, as a "rags-to-riches" story, adding that Seungri was a late bloomer in the spotlight, only coming into his own after the other Big Bang members were absent. Seungri said, "I had a tough time outshining other members of the group, so I studied foreign languages." He said he had tried to succeed at business, in part, because he felt "overlooked and underappreciated" by fans, being the youngest of the famous group, and business was a place where he would not have to compete with the other band members. Seungri said his popularity had been a business asset and he had looked for partners that would benefit from it."

His last studio album ''The Great Seungri'' was a play on his nickname, from the novel ''The Great Gatsby''. After his involvement in the scandal, a popular culture critic in Seoul, Lee Moon-won, said "the multilingual Seungri", with "has multiple business interests" had been seen as an “ideal cultural export”, deemed to be a hard-worker by his fans. Lee pointed out the irony of Seungri's having been found to be thoroughly comparable to ''The Great Gatsby'' protagonist, not only for his good looks, business acumen, and lavish parties, but because both had sought "illicit and corrupt activities to gain fame and wealth."

Seungri's friends and scandal participants

Seungri was close to celebrity friends Jung Joon-young, age 30, and Choi Jong-hoon, age 29, who joined him when his agency YG Entertainment launched their newest YG Republique restaurant in August 2017, in Kuala Lumpur. Jung, a singer-songwriter and television celebrity, and the key person in the illicit sex video portion of the scandal, had been a friend of Seungri for several years. In 2015, he showed off their relationship by telephoning Seungri for a chat during a live radio broadcast. In August 2018, Seungri joined him on the travel show Salty Tour, where Jung was a main cast member, and made comments that generated disciplinary actions by the Korea Communications Standards Commission due to their gender insensitivity or potential "sexual harassment". During a broadcast episode on a trip to Xiamen, China, Seungri asked a female guest to pick a favorite amongst the five male cast members and pour them a drink; which viewers complained about.

Development

2019: Scandal begins and cases develop

January 28, Kim Sang-kyo assault at Burning Sun reported

The first public awareness of the Burning Sun scandal was on January 28, 2019, when MBC Newsdesk reported on an alleged assault of a 29-year-old clubgoer, Kim Sang-kyo, at the Burning Sun nightclub. Kim said he was attempting to help a woman who was being sexually harassed, but staff had assaulted him. When the Yeoksam police arrived, he was arrested as the assailant and booked on seven charges, including criminal battery, an indecent act, defamation and the obstruction of the performance of official duties. He said the police assaulted him after he was placed under arrest. The incident occurred on November 24, 2018, but came to media attention in January 2019, after Kim posted a petition on the Cheong Wa Dae website detailing his assault by Burning Sun staffers and mistreatment by police; and further stating that female customers were drugged by staffers and the club had a corrupt relationship with district police. Another current petition on the website called for the investigation of the club scene, in general, and druggings occurring there. Cheong Wa Dae is a petition website based on former President Obama's We the People, and which was launched in August 2017, on President Moon's 100th day in office. Kim's petition had received the benchmark 200,000 signatures prompting an official response.

Initial allegations at Burning Sun

During the early stages, the scandal evolved around Kim's complaint against the Burning Sun nightclub, including any possible crimes that may have occurred there, and the identities of responsible parties. The initial January 28 report of the Kim incident, by MBC Newsdesk, included two CCTV videos of the club's security footage purportedly showing Kim's assault inside the club, and a second one showing a woman being dragged down a hallway, and alleged to have been drugged. A KBS report soon added that an alleged former employee had talked about illegal drug use in the club's VIP rooms. An additional report by MBC, on February 14, included allegations of a purported VIP client of the club, who said staff solicited him in text messages, offering women who were available for sex, after readying them with date rape drugs. He claimed to have received a video clip from staff, showing "an intoxicated woman being raped".

By January 31, 2019, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) had taken charge of the investigation, which included allegations of local Gangnam police corruption and collusion with the club's owners, and had assigned a team to look into the club's allegations of sexual violence, drug use, Kim's arrest and any connection with the local police station. The SMPA said their quick response and follow-up investigation was due to media attention garnered by the Big Bang K-pop group member Seungri's affiliation with the club. They also said they had expanded their probe of drug-related allegations to all Gangnam clubs, due to club marketing by independent "merchandisers" or "MDs" for many different clubs.

Seungri's involvement and his relationship to the nightclub immediately became a hot media issue. Yang Hyun-suk the chief of his agency, YG Entertainment, released a statement on January 31, that Seungri had been at the club on November 28, but left before Kim's incident occurred. He also said Seungri's recent resignation as a senior director of the club was due to his upcoming military enlistment. Seungri's delayed response to the controversy was in an Instagram statement on February 2, stating that he was not present at the club during Kim's alleged assault, had belatedly heard about it, and served as an executive director for the club and had no part in the club's operation or management; but he, however, apologized that he had not taken responsibility from the beginning.

February 26, first KakaoTalk messages revealed

On February 26, 2019, SBS FunE released the first portions of the KakaoTalk recordings that would become crucial in the investigation, saying their origin was an anonymous source which had turned them over to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission on February 22. The recordings dated back to 2015, and seemed to implicate Seungri with allegations that he had directed Burning Sun staff to arrange prostitutes for foreign investors who were coming to Seoul, at another Gangnam nightclub. The source had cited possible police collusion as the reason for not turning them over directly to police. The police held a press conference on March 4, saying they had not seen the original, unedited KakaoTalk messages and doubted their veracity, just prior to an SBS report detailing how they had obtained them.

On February 27, Seungri was questioned by the SMPA, a lengthy interview that lasted overnight and included a drug test. Seungri denied allegations of attempts to buy sex for potential foreign investors (or sex for business favors) and any knowledge of the KakaoTalk messages, which had been disclosed by media, conversations he allegedly had with a Burning Sun co-founder and another of its employees about such arrangements; and he denied drug use. Media reports said that various nightclubs were used for the lobbying, including one named Arena, where Seungri allegedly arranged sexual favors for investors. In one alleged chat conversation between Seungri and his business partners in December 2015, Seungri says, "Give B (the anonymous investor) everything she wants. Get a hold of the main ooms

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