Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Following being booked for embezzlement from both Monkey Museum and Burning Sun, Seungri is now facing another incident of embezzlement, this time for reportedly using club funds to pay for the legal defense of a DJ accused of sexual assault.
On the April 14 broadcast of Channel A’s “News A,” it was reported that Seungri took 10 million won (approximately $8,800) from Yuri Holdings to allegedly pay for the legal fees of a staff member being investigated for suspicions of sexual assault. Yuri Holdings was founded by Seungri and Yoo In Suk in 2016 to operate several businesses in the food and entertainment sectors, which includes the controversial club Burning Sun. According to the report, Seungri used the money in 2016 for a DJ at the club Monkey Museum, which he established in 2016 in partnership with Yoo In Suk. The DJ was reportedly being investigated for sexually assaulting a woman after she became drunk at the club.
Seungri did not deny this happened, but explained that he paid for the legal fees of the DJ because it was to defend the image of the club.
Seungri denied the accusations of embezzlement as he stated, “I paid for the legal fees because it could have affected the club’s image.” Police are investigating whether Seungri has embezzled funds in addition to the suspected lawyer fees.
Additionally, it was reported that Seungri is being suspected of paying his manager with funds from Burning Sun.
According to the April 12 broadcast of MBC’s “Newsdesk,” police investigating the suspicious flow of funds in Burning Sun’s bank account found that more than 30 million won (approximately $26,450) in Burning Sun funds were paid regularly every month to Mr. Ji, Seungri’s former manager. Although Mr. Ji was an employee of YG Entertainment and not Burning Sun, the club deposited 3 million won (approximately $2,645) every month under the pretext of giving Mr. Ji his monthly salary.
That would be a problem because it would also constitute embezzlement, according to police.
It was also reported that YG Entertainment was aware of this activity and fired the manager for it.
MBC also reported that YG Entertainment had already known about this after questioning Seungri in Feburary when “Burning Sun Gate” first broke out. After confirming that Seungri had indeed paid Mr. Ji using funds from Burning Sun, the company reportedly fired Mr. Ji. If Mr. Ji’s salary was paid by Burning Sun, instead of Seungri himself or the agency, Seungri may be charged with embezzlement.
YGE stated that they did indeed pay him and knew nothing else about the other stuff.
1. Mr. Ji was Seungri’s manager during the time of his employment with YG Entertainment (he is no longer an employee of the company), and accordingly, his salary was of course paid by our company.
2. As our company has no connection whatsoever to Seungri’s personal business, we had no idea that Mr. Ji was also employed as an overseer at Yuri Holdings or that he had received a separate salary from Seungri’s businesses.
3. We ourselves became aware of these facts only recently, after the controversy broke out, and we terminated Seungri’s exclusive contract and also terminated Mr. Ji’s employment with our company.
Their statement surprisingly confirms the story, saying that they fired the manager after they found out about what was going on. Whether or not you believe that they were unaware of all this until now is obviously worth questioning, though.
Regardless, amazingly the amount of charges that Seungri is facing only continues to grow, and he’s now been accused of embezzlement in at least four different instances, topped by his former company throwing him under the bus in their official statement.
