Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
As if there isn’t enough mess involving YG Entertainment, SBS has obtained testimony that YGE bribed a reporter to keep Seungri‘s drunk driving and drug cases under wraps.
Similar allegations arose last year when YGE denied them.
YG Entertainment is under suspicion of giving out a bribe to reporter Kim Yong-ho. In February last year, media reported that YG had bribed a “reporter Kim” 100 million won to silence reports regarding Seungri’s drunk driving and drug abuse in 2017. At the time, YG Entertainment denied the allegations calling them “groundless.”
But detailed testimony has emerged from four individuals close to the reporter.
SBS was able to obtain detailed testimonies from four officials close to reporter Kim that YG did indeed bribe him to stop reporting on the former Big Bang member. A close aide to Kim ‘A’ revealed to SBS reporters, “Kim received two bread bags with 100 million won in cash at a playground. He said, “Maybe because it’s in 50,000 won bills but it’s not as much as I thought.” He even bragged about how he he was going to split it halfway with his wife when he got home.” Another close aide, ‘B’ also revealed, “Kim said he’d use the 100 million won to pay back the loan on his Jeon-se house he took out when he moved to Mokdong. I heard Kim rejected the first offer of 10 million won but accepted the second offer after YG upped it to 100 million won. I remember Kim saying,”YG has a lot of money of course he should raise the amount.” ‘B’ added, “I heard that Yang Hyun Suk wanted to fight on the amount until the end but Yang Min Suk stepped in and helped with negotiations.” Another entertainment official ‘C’ recalled that Kim personally showed off the agreement he had with YG Entertainment. C revealed, “Kim boasted that YG had reached out to him first to give him the 100 million won even though he hadn’t asked for it. He took out his cell phone and showed us the agreement he had signed with YG. The amount on the agreement wasn’t exactly 100 million, it was more like 90-something million.” A fourth acquaintance ‘D’ revealed, “When Kim talked about how he got the 100 million, he didn’t say he got it directly from YG but rather Chairman Won.” Chairman Won is said to be a big name in the stock trading industry and is very close to Yang Hyun Suk.
The report speculates than ‘Chairman Won’ is Won Young Shik, who is known in the stock trading industry, and notes that while the reporter has threatened legal action over the reports many times he has yet to file a complaint in 13 months.
Is the story believable? Sure. Is it even more so because it’s YGE and Seungri? Absolutely. Is the fact that the reporter didn’t bother taking legal action despite living in a country that not doing so almost means an admittance of guilt a bit shady? Of course.
But the thing about this is that while this all could be true, it’s hard to see anything coming out of it. The authorities have proven time and again that unless there are records of all this they will do nothing (and even if they are, the sentences will be light), so no matter how much testimony may exist, unless they were dumb enough to leave a paper trail, it’s hard to see anything coming of it.
