Discredited singer Seungri has officially been sentenced to three years in prison by the South Korean military court on Thursday, August 12^th, on charges of mediating prostitution-related charges and illegal gambling more than two years after an investigation over his involvement in the Burning Sun night club scandal.

According to South Korean media outlet Yonhap, Seungri was found guilty on all charges placed against him with the military court stating: “The defendant arranged sexual favours for foreign investors on many occasions in collusion with his business partner Yoo In-suk and gained benefits as a result. His crime of commercialising sex and violating our traditional custom has caused no small harm to our society.”

“It is hard to see the defendant was not aware of financial payments paid to the women for sex. It appears that he carried out systematic sexual prostitution,” Judge Hwang Min-je reportedly said.

Prosecutors sought five years in prison, and a fine of 20 million KRW (~17,177 USD) in the last trial, but the court finalized the sentencing to three years in prison and a fine of 1.15 billion KRW.

Since 2019, at the height of the ‘Burning Sun’ scandal, the former member of BIG BANG has been undergoing investigation and trial for multiple charges including the procurement and mediation of securing prostitutes for VIPs, embezzlement of business funds, attempted destruction of evidence and distribution of illegally filmed footage of women, drug trafficking and use to name a few.

Numerous women came forward with their personal claims of being assaulted or drugged at the night club. Further police investigation also brought to light the discovery of an online group chat that shared sexually explicit videos of women filmed without their knowledge and consent, of which two other K-pop stars, Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon, were found to be a part of. Both have been sentenced to six and five years in jail respectively.

Burning Sun has since closed down following the allegations.

Though the 30-year-old has since received his sentencing, many netizens were displeased with the final verdict, stating that the length of his imprisonment was ‘too light of a punishment compared to what he did’.

One stated, “I’m so surprised that it’s only three years,” while others said, “Only three years? He should be ashamed of himself,” “He did so many things wrong and he’s only spending three years in prison?” and “Not 30 years?”