Jung Joon-young KakaoTalk chatrooms

South Korean singer-songwriter and television personality Jung Joon-young began his entertainment career in 2012 as a contestant on the audition show Superstar K 4, in which he placed third. While filming the show, he met fellow contestants Roy Kim[2][3][4] and Eddy Kim,[5][6] both solo singer-songwriters. Jung later met Big Bang member Seungri at an awards show.[7]

In 2016, an ex-girlfriend filed criminal charges against Jung, claiming he filmed them having sex without her consent. She later withdrew the charges.[8][9] During this period, Jung dropped out of the television show 2 Days & 1 Night, but returned after three months.[10][11] In 2017, a JoongAng Ilbo analysis noted that Jung's quick return to show business after his 2016 sex scandal showed the public was becoming more tolerant of the "private lives of celebrities".[12]

On February 26, 2019, cable TV channel SBS funE published KakaoTalk messages they received from an unnamed source. The messages, which would become part of the Burning Sun scandal, appeared to show Seungri directing staff at a nightclub he owned to bring prostitutes for the club's clients.[13]

The SBS Eight O'Clock News revealed that the source of the KakaoTalk messages was a lawyer named Bang Jung-hyun, who was interviewed by the news program on March 11, 2019.[14] Bang said he obtained the messages from a whistleblower who was a technician at a phone repair shop where Jung had dropped his phone off for repairs.[8][15] The whistleblower had sent an email to Bang that contained thousands of messages taken from Jung's phone from a period of eight months in 2015 and 2016. The messages appeared to include Jung, Seungri, and other male celebrities. Bang said of the chats, "Their conversations showed that there were not only sex crimes by celebrities, but also a cozy relationship between them and top police officers."[15] Bang told SBS he had forwarded the messages to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission in February.[15] SBS reported that the messages could not have been manipulated because a tamper-proof device called a hash-code verification was embedded in them; the messages could therefore stand as circumstantial evidence to seek more evidence, SBS reported.[14]

Media outlets, including The Korea Times, later translated the messages into English. In one conversation, dated January 1, 2016, Jung allegedly typed in a group chat, "Let's all get together online, hit the strip bar and rape them in the car", to which another member of the group chat, identified only as "Park", responded, "Our lives are like a movie. We have done so many things that could put us in jail. We just haven't killed anyone."[16][17] Another group chat, dated April 17, 2016, allegedly shows Jung responding to a conversation with two people identified only as "Kim 1" and "Choi":

Kim 1: Anybody want porn?

Choi: Me.

Kim 1: (Kim sends the video)

Choi: Wait, she is fainted.

Kim 1: So what?

Choi: I want to see her alive (in the video).

Kim 1: Then I couldn't have turned on the flash.

Jung: You raped her. (Laughs)[16]

Jung, who was in Los Angeles filming a television show, returned to Seoul on March 12,[18] where he was booked as a suspect on charges of illegal hidden camera filming and sharing[19] and accused of taping ten or more women.[20] Later that day, Jung released a statement saying, "I admit to all my crimes", and resigned from all his entertainment work a day following Seungri's resignation. Jung said, "I filmed women without their consent and shared it in a chatroom, and while I was doing so I didn't feel a great sense of guilt", and apologized to his victims.[20]

On March 13, SBS reported allegations that police had tampered with evidence in Jung's 2016 sex scandal.[8][9]

Jung and Seungri were both called into the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) on March 14, with more than 100 journalists gathered outside.[21] Jung apologized before entering the station for questioning, followed by Seungri later that day. Seungri exited first at around 6:15 a.m. on March 15, and Jung exited around an hour later, following 21 hours of questioning. Jung told reporters he had handed in his "golden phone", a nickname for his second mobile phone that reporters had speculated may be where Jung stored his illegal videos.[22]

SMPA Jongno Police Station where Jung was taken after March 21, 2019, arrest

Meanwhile, on March 14, two more singers, Yong Jun-hyung of the boy band Highlight[23] and Choi Jong-hoon of the band F.T. Island,[24] announced their retirement from their respective music groups following speculation that they were participants in Jung's chatrooms. Yong admitted to viewing one of Jung's sex tapes that was recorded without the woman's permission and participating in "inappropriate conversations" about it, saying, "All these behaviours were extremely unethical, and I was stupid".[23] Yong was questioned by police as a witness.[25] Choi had been a member of one of the chatrooms that was of immediate interest in media reports and the investigation.[26][27] In one conversation, Choi allegedly detailed his own drunk driving incident from 2016,[28] that was allegedly kept out of media coverage due to help from a police official with the surname Yoon. Choi was questioned by police on March 16 under allegations of secretly filming and sharing videos.[29]

On March 15, another Korean idol, Lee Jong-hyun of rock band CNBLUE, admitted to viewing Jung's sex videos in a group chatroom and making disparaging remarks about women, talking about them as sexual objects. The admission followed a prior denial on his part and an SBS report of an alleged KakaoTalk conversation he had with Jung, during which Lee asked for "young", "pretty" and "kind" women he could have sex with, and to which Jung responded, "Who do you want?"[30] Lee left CNBlue in August after a female YouTuber revealed private messages he sent her, "drawing new attention to his inappropriate interactions with and about women", Billboard reported.[31]

Other celebrities affected by the scandal were actor Cha Tae-hyun and comedian Kim Jun-ho, Jung's fellow cast members on 2 Days & 1 Night, who suspended all of their entertainment industry activities on March 16 after the chatroom conversations revealed they allegedly gambled large amounts of money while playing golf overseas.[32][33]

Jung was arrested on March 21 for charges under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment, etc. of Sexual Crimes.[34][35] He was charged with crimes against at least ten victims for illegally filming and distributing sex tapes. Jung admitted to the charges and apologized at the hearing for his arrest at the Seoul Central District Court, and was later taken to the SMPA's Jongno Police Station.[36] On March 29, he was transferred from the police station again to the prosecution for referral of an indictment,[35] and he was indicted on April 17.[37]

On April 2, 2019, the SMPA issued a summons for singer-songwriter Roy Kim, who they said appeared in the illegal chatroom with Jung, Seungri and Choi,[2] and booked him the following day for distributing an obscene photo in the chatroom, which he denied taking himself,[38] and which investigators agreed was likely the case.[5] Roy Kim's agency coordinated his return to South Korea from the United States where he was attending school,[2][39] and he was questioned by police on April 10.[40]

On April 3, Label SJ, the agency for Kangin of boy band Super Junior, released a statement admitting that Kangin had been a member of Jung's chatroom while the two worked together on the television show Hitmaker three years prior[41] and denied any illegal activity on Kangin's part.[4] On April 4, police said that Kangin, Jeong Jin-woon of boy band 2AM, and model Lee Cheol-woo were members of the chatrooms, but they had no plans to question them yet.[42]

On April 5, singer-songwriter Eddy Kim was booked for circulating one or more illegally taken photographs from the chatrooms.[5]

An early April police tally stated that seven chatroom members had been booked for disseminating spy camera content; and there were a total of 23 different groups or one-on-one chatrooms, with sixteen participants. Included in the bookings and instances of occurrences were: Jung, 13; Choi, 3; and Seungri, 1.[2] Two arrests included Jung and a former Burning Sun employee, surnamed Kim,[42] including a probe of five others.[43]

On April 19, 2019, the first victim complaint against chatroom members was filed against Jung, Choi and three others: former employees of the Burning Sun and YG Entertainment, and an anonymous businessman. The complainant alleged that, after passing out, she had been raped in a Daegu hotel room in March 2016, in an incident that was filmed by the group.[44][45] The victim's complaint followed an April 11 interview of Bang on JTBC's Lee Gyu-yeon's Spotlight, where he reported there were about ten photos and videos from the chatrooms that showed forced sexual assaults, sometimes by multiple members of the chat group. Bang had met with some of the women from the videos, who were unaware of what had happened to them, perhaps due to having been drugged.[46][47] On April 23, the SMPA began an investigation into the complainant's allegations, which reportedly occurred after a fan signing event for Jung; and a second similar rape case at a resort in Hongcheon in January 2016, where another alleged victim traveled with Jung and Choi. The SMPA said they were aware of group rape after examining the videos, but had not been able to identify the victims until they came forward. The cases were assigned to the SMPA's Women and Juvenile Affairs Division, who have expertise in crimes against women, including sexual assault.[48]

Choi was arrested on May 9 for allegations of group sexual assault with four members of Jung's chat group in March 2016; after appearing at a hearing with two others and denying the charges against him.[49] Another male, surname Kwon, was also arrested; with both Choi and Kwon charged under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment, etc. of Sexual Crimes.[50] Jung, who was still under police custody, pled guilty to eleven cases of the illicit filming and sharing at a May 10 pretrial hearing, where he offered to settle with the victims. He was being investigated separately in the group rape case, where he, like Choi, denied allegations.[51] On May 17, the SMPA referred the gang rape case to prosecutors, recommending indictments on charges of special rape.[52] On June 5, after indictments, the Seoul Central District Court merged the trials for the five previously accused, Jung, Choi, Kwon, a Burning Sun MD named Kim, and an entertainment director named Heo, to include two charges of group rapes of the two victims in 2016.[53][54][55] The five appeared at a June 27 hearing and denied the rape charges.[56][57] At the first trial hearing on July 16, which included the illegal filming and sharing and rape charges, Jung and Kwon admitted to having sex but denied rape, and Choi denied having sex. Jung's lawyer submitted a statement contesting the legality of evidence obtained from the KakaoTalk messages in violation of the Personal Information Protection Act. The court specified five victims, two reference witnesses, a time period for the alleged illegal photography from November 2015 to June 2016, the dates of the alleged rapes on January 9 and March 20, 2016, and the need for confidentiality of the victims.[58][59][60][61] The next trial dates, on August 19, August 26, September 2, September 16, September 23, October 7 and October 21 were closed to the public.[62][63][64][65] At the ninth trial date on November 13, prosecutors recommended prison sentences on the rape charges for all five men. The defendants and number of years respectively were: Jung, 7; Choi, 5; Kwon, 10; Kim, 10; and Heo, 5. Jung's charges included the illicit filming and sharing. Prosecutors also asked that all five be restricted from working with minors for 10 years, be required to disclose personal information, and undergo sexual violence treatment programs.[66][67][68] Another trial date was held on November 27.[68][69]

On November 29, the court sentenced Jung to six years in prison and Choi to five, and both were sentenced to complete 80 hours of sexual assault treatment and a five-year restriction on working with minors.[70][71][72] The judge said "the defendants treated the women as simple instruments of sexual pleasure", "committing crimes of gang rape and sexual assault" and "sharing their acts in a chatroom with acquaintances", and said the "damage to the victims could not be recovered".[73] The other three defendants were also sentenced, with Kim receiving a five-year prison sentence, Kwon a four-year prison sentence, and Heo a suspended sentence with two years' probation and 160 hours of community service.[70][73] By December 6, Jung, Choi and Kim had submitted appeals to the court for their convictions.[74][75]

On January 30, 2020, Jung and Choi were indicted by prosecutors on more charges, along with nine others in the Burning Sun case, Jung for allegations of soliciting prostitution and Choi for bribing a police officer during his drunk driving incident in February 2016.[76] On February 4, the first trial hearing for an appeal of the November 29 rape convictions by all five defendants was held.[77] At the March 18 trial for Choi for additional charges, he admitted to illegal filming and sharing in the KakaoTalk chatrooms, but denied the 2016 police bribery charge. Prosecutors proposed an additional one-year and a half sentencing on top of his prior rape conviction sentence, if convicted.[78]

Agencies for Roy Kim and Eddy Kim released statements on February 25 and March 6, respectively, that their indictments had been suspended from prosecution due to each singer having uploaded only one image that was captured online, and had belonged to a "hobby chatroom" with Jung Joon-young, not the more questionable one.[79][80]

On April 3, Jung and Burning Sun employee Kim were fined one million won and two million won, respectively, in a summary judgment for the prostitution charges, along with judgments for two others in the Burning Sun case.[81]

On May 12, an appellate court reduced the prison sentences for three of the defendants: Jung's to five years from six, Choi's to two-and-a-half years from five, and Kim's to four years from five.[82][83] Sentences for the other two defendants, Kwon's four years in prison and Heo's two years' probation, remained the same as the first trial.[83] Jung had submitted documents attesting to his regret, and Choi and Kim had settled with one of the victims, accounting for the sentence reductions.[83][84] Jung and Choi were additionally denied probation, mandated to attend treatment programs and restricted from working with children and teens.[85] Jung and Choi submitted appeals to the Supreme Court of South Korea on May 13 and May 18, respectively,[86][87] and on September 24, the sentences for Jung (five years) and Choi (two-and-a-half years) were upheld.[88]

On August 12, Seungri was sentenced by a military court to a three-year prison term on nine charges related to the Burning Sun scandal,[89] one of which was a "violation of the Act on Special Cases Concerning The Punishment, Etc. of Sexual Crimes" or his distribution of three nude photos of women via a mobile chatroom.[2][90][91] As part of the sentencing, his personal information was reported to the government's sex crimes' registry,[91] with employment restrictions.[92]

Seungri's case concluded in a military appeals court in January 2022, with a reduced prison sentence of a year and a half and a fine, based on an admission of guilt and "refection" on all nine charges.[93]