Who is Seungri?
Former BIGBANG member Seungri arrives for questioning as a suspect over overseas gambling allegations at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Intelligent Crime Investigation Unit in Jungnang District, Seoul, Aug. 28, 2019. Korea Times file
Ex-BIGBANG member faces special assault complaint
Born in 1990, Seungri debuted in 2006 as the youngest member of BIGBANG, the YG Entertainment boy band behind hits including "Lies" (2007), "Haru Haru" (2012) and "Bang Bang Bang" (2016).
He began solo activities in 2008 with "Strong Baby," produced by bandmate G-Dragon, and released his first full-length solo album, "The Great Seungri," in July 2018, holding his first solo concerts in Seoul the following month.
From left, Seungri, T.O.P, Taeyang, Daesung and G-Dragon pose during a press conference marking BIGBANG's 10th anniversary at S-Factory in Seoul's Seongdong District, Aug. 4, 2016. Seungri retired from show business in 2019 amid the Burning Sun scandal. Yonhap
His image as a young entrepreneur unraveled in early 2019, when reports of an assault at Burning Sun, a nightclub in Gangnam District where he served as a director, snowballed into allegations of drug use and police collusion, followed by media reports suggesting he had tried to arrange sexual services for foreign investors.
Police booked him on charges of brokering prostitution on March 10, 2019. He announced his retirement from show business the next day, and YG terminated his exclusive contract on March 13.
Indicted in January 2020, he enlisted in the military about a month later and stood trial in a military court, which sentenced him to three years in prison in August 2021. After admitting to the charges against him on appeal, he had the sentence reduced to 18 months, a ruling the Supreme Court upheld in May 2022.
He was convicted of nine charges, including arranging prostitution for foreign investors in 2015 and 2016, habitually gambling about 2.2 billion won ($1.63 million) at Las Vegas casinos between 2013 and 2017, embezzling funds from Burning Sun and sharing a nude photo in a group chatroom.
The charges also included instigating special assault by getting a business partner to mobilize gangsters to threaten a customer he had quarreled with at a Gangnam bar in December 2015. He was released from prison in February 2023.
Former BIGBANG member Seungri arrives for an arrest warrant hearing at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, Seoul, Jan. 13, 2020. Korea Times file
His activities abroad have since drawn repeated criticism.
In January 2024, a video from an event in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, showed him promising the crowd he would bring G-Dragon there someday, prompting backlash for invoking his former group.
A BBC documentary released that May included previously unseen footage of him forcefully pulling a woman by the arm at a party, and in August, organizers in Indonesia canceled a party titled "Burning Sun Surabaya" amid an outcry over a promotional poster bearing his photo.