Former star breaks silence on fraud charge

Kang Sung-hoon is making a statement at a press conference held in November 2012 after he was sued on charge of swindling over 900 million won. / Korea Times file

Sechs Kies, with Kang Sung-hoon at far right on the front row

Former star Kang Sung-hoon, 35, has broken his silence about his 2011 fraud charge with his first

TV appearance

since then.

The former member of now-defunct boy band Sechs Kies appeared on SBS’s “Special Entertainment News” on Wednesday night. The interview pivoted around how he had been feeling since the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office acquitted him on Jan. 8

“It has been over 10 years since I stood in front of a camera,” Kang said. “I thought a lot about whether I should do this interview.”

He said his celebrity status expanded the litigation case into a big social issue and pushed people to doubt him even after the charge was dismissed.

“I hated myself,” Kang said.

An anonymous loan shark and seven others sued Kang for fraud in 2011. They argued they had lent him about 2.5 billion won ($2.3 million) between 2008 and 2010 but he had not paid back 900 million won ($830,000). In September 2013 a court sentenced him to 18 months’ jail, suspended for two years.

But prosecutors recently overturned the ruling, saying it was “difficult to prove the charge based on the plaintiffs’ argument.”

Kang has sued his accusers for defamation and false charges.