Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Earlier, a preview for MBC‘s ‘Straight‘ was revealed and connected YG to prostitution mediation, which YG Entertainment denied before the episode was released. Now the episode has aired and it revealed the details of the allegations.
According to the program’s sources, back in July 2014, several high-ranking figures from YG Entertainment accompanied two Southeast Asian investors to an upscale restaurant in the Gangnam district of Seoul. An anonymous witness claimed, “The people from YG met with the investors at least three times. I also know that famous singers from YG came to talk to them for a long time. There were about eight men and about 25 women invited. I understand that at least 10 of the women were brought by Madam Jung from an adult entertainment establishment. Hwang Ha Na was also there.” The witness continued, “After the meal, they headed to club NB in Gangnam, which has ties with Yang Hyun Suk, and had fun while Yang Hyun Suk watched them from the balcony. The foreign investors chose the women they liked and went back to their lodgings. Most of them came out for dinner the next day. There were a lot of bar girls at every meeting, and they also moved the party elsewhere for a ‘second round.’ Some of the women even went abroad on the investors’ private helicopters.” A famous singer that was present at the meal commented, “I went to say hello, not to accompany them,” adding, “I didn’t know that there was any solicitation of prostitution services. Madam Jung is just a person I know.”
Of course Hwang Hana gets brought up.
The show also points out how Seungri lead to previous suspicion of YGE that was never investigated by police.
While reportedly mediating prostitution services, Seungri paid for the hotel expenses with YG Entertainment’s corporate credit card. Therefore, there were suspicions that YG Entertainment may have been involved with the mediation of prostitution services, but the police did not investigate the company.
Like before, YG denied knowledge of prostitution services. He does admit to knowing Madam Jung, but says he didn’t know why the women were around.
Yang Hyun Suk responded by denying any involvement in the alleged mediation of prostitution services, stating, “It’s true that I was present, but I didn’t know that prostitution services were solicited. I didn’t pay for the meal expenses myself. I don’t know anything about it. There was no further contact with the investors. I know Madam Jung, but I don’t know why the women attended.”
The show also goes on to talk about an alleged sexual assault and how an executive tied to YGE was involved.
“Straight” also interviewed a woman who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by a wealthy Thai investor after being drugged at the now-notorious club Burning Sun. The woman asserted that an executive from YG Entertainment subsidiary YGX had been present at the time, stating, “The YGX executive was in the corner. Looking back now, it seemed like he was taking care of the Thai [investors], like he was guiding them.” However, the investor in question appeared on a Thai broadcast and claimed that he had no relationship with Seungri. Nevertheless, “Straight” reported that this investor has had ties with YG Entertainment since at least 2014.
This was actually brought up months ago, but had already been dismissed by Thai police.
The woman then contacted the police, but discovered that there was no way that her accusations would hold up as she was shocked to see CCTV footages that showed her walking calmly in to the hotel room with the man. In addition, the photo that she took with the man also served as a notion that made it seem as if she was not forced into the hotel room against her will. In addition, when forensics attempted to collect traces of GHB in her system, it was too late as an expert pointed out that GHB must be detected in the first twelve to twenty four hours upon administration.
To explain the picture, she says the photo of the two of them in the room was taken under fear.
After being sexually assaulted, Mr. Bob claimed he would only let her go if she took a photo with him smiling. Scared for her life, she complied.
So nothing new there, and regardless of whether one believes her or not, it’s hard to blame Thai police for their decision as proving her case given the video and picture evidence would likely be impossible. Though what is new is the reported connection between the investor and YGE for years.
Additionally, as seemingly all things with this case, ties between the Gangnam clubs and the Gangnam police were raised.
“Straight” also raised suspicions about collusive ties between the Gangnam District police and clubs like Burning Sun and Arena, urging the police to investigate these allegations of collusion and prostitution mediation in a transparent manner.
At the end of the day, that’s one of the major issues with this case, as police have been operating in an odd manner and there doesn’t seem to be any reason for them to change.
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‘Straight’ also talked to a former underage prostitute, telling them that club merchandisers would connect them with VIPs who wanted underage girls.
Miss B, who worked as an underage prostitute at the time, revealed that they got paid 300,000~500,000 for having sex with a customer. They would be set up by a club MD (short for ‘Merchandiser’) and told to entertain a certain VIP for the night.
“You can just think that what goes on at room salons happen at clubs too. If you [have sex] inside the club, you earn about 300,000 won (~$250 USD). If you go outside with them, you earn about 500,000 won (~$420 USD). The MD comes to the room in the morning and gives it to you in cash.” — Miss B
Most of the underage girls are those who ran away from home. Some were as young as middle schoolers who are 14 years old. The VVIPs who spend 10 million won (~$8,500 USD) would specifically ask for underage girls, and they’d take the girls to designated apartments, where they drug them and film themselves sexually assaulting them. They call these videos “pornos”, and the girls were given 1 million won to do this.
“They say it’s easier to find drugs than cigarettes at Gangnam. It’s the worst. You ruin your body and lose your mind too. There are kids who move on to work at room salons, and some stay to work at the club because they still haven’t paid off their debts. Needles are a given at the apartments. If you do drugs and film a porno, you earn about 1 million won (~$850 USD). The most valued customer gets to pick who they want and they chose a girl who’s only 14. The VIPs all know that we’re underage. They specifically ask for underage girls. If an MD tricks the VIPs with a girl who’s not underage, they don’t get paid.” — Miss B
She also made a mention to the cleanup team that had been referred to before by reports from ‘We Want To Know’.
“There’s a cremation (clean up) team that comes in after we’re done. I only heard that they exist because they come in after we leave, so I don’t know their faces.” — Miss B
Former employees of Club Arena and Burning Sun then told the program how covering for VIPs usually worked.
“A former employee of Club Arena, another popular club in Gangnam, revealed that the upper management would take care of cleaning up the tables, seats, and rooms after VIPs had sex inside the club. I saw them talk about cremation in the group chat. They’d tell us to cremate table 20 and so forth. The upper management usually took care of this.” — Past MD at Club Arena
“There are a lot of bathrooms inside the club, so when the VIPs smoke weed or give the women GHB… The VIP rooms have bathrooms inside, so they’d rape the women inside the bathrooms. A lot of the [VIPs] would often leave the women in the bathroom. There was a rule. When we kicked out the victims, we took off their wristbands. That way, we can claim that this person drank somewhere else but came to the club to cause a scene. We take off their bands while exiting the club to get rid of evidence that they were inside Burning Sun. We leave them on the bench outside the club for them to wake up.” — Previous Employee Of Burning Sun
Testimony is evidence, but I don’t think I’d have a lot of hope for these allegations being prosecuted due to a multitude of factors including this happening in the past, the importance of the people being connected, and the shady involvement of the police in all this.
Some of this isn’t necessarily new, but it does provide further corroboration for other reports and insight into exactly how things operated. Honestly, none of this being true would surprise me at this point. The club culture is obviously a major issue, with too many people from different backgrounds and even those within it providing testimony, and the prostitution mediation is almost status quo when it comes to business meetings in these industries, so it almost can’t be surprising.
