Article: "I got 200 million"...Key figure in Seungri's katalk would be able to reveal it all...
Source: JoongAng Ilbo
There's a link between Seungri's "Burning Sun incident" and Yang Hyun Suk's "hwanchigi" activities.
Yang Hyun Suk (50), former head of YG Entertainment and former Big Bang member Seungri (30) are under suspicion of habitual gambling abroad and are currently under investigation.
Yang Hyun Suk is suspected of illegally gambling since the early 2000s in Las Vegas and Macau and reportedly gambling between 7.5 to 15 million won.
Everything began with Burning Sun
Police have obtained intelligence about an alleged link between Seungri's "Burning Sun gate" and illegal overseas gambling crimes by both Yang and Seungri.
Police obtained Katalk messages sent by Seungri to his business partner in 2014 that said, "I got 200 million. Come over to C Hotel. Let me introduce you to the person in charge. Because I go there often to gamble, I get special perks from Savebank."
In the messages, "the person in charge" refers to a casino marketer. They recruit potential customers and bring them back and forth overseas. They're kind of a "marketing agent." Depending on their customer rating, they're also in charge of taking care of VIP clients by booking their flight tickets, hotel accommodations and scheduling tours for them when they visit the casino.
At that time, police found that casino marketers lent money to customers who wanted to make high-priced bets and later received their share of profits by receiving a % fee based on how much money they let that particular customer. According to the Foreign Exchange Transaction Act, the maximum amount a Korean traveling abroad can carry without reporting to the government is $10,000. If Seungri's claim that "he got 200 million" is true, it's highly likely that he used illegal methods to obtain the foreign currency.
The casino marketer that served Seungri reportedly serves "high-priced" casino visitors from Korea and Asia at the C Hotel in Las Vegas. Based on industry rumors at the time, police presume that not only Yang Hyun Suk but another famous celebrity "Kim" was a client of his as well.
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| C Hotel in Las Vegas where Seungri introduced the "person in charge" to his acquaintance |
In March, police who were trying to determine details of the incident obtained critical intelligence from an informant that the alleged casino marketer, the "person in charge" from Seungri's katalk had entered South Korea. According to police, the marketer had visited Korea to get money owed to him from Seungri.
The informant stated, "it's a situation where his source of profit became uncertain when Seungri announced his retirement from the entertainment industry because of the Burning Sun scandal so he visited in order to figure out the situation."
Did Police investigate the casino marketer?
It's not known whether police questioned them. However, police insiders and outsiders say that it's difficult to explain the vast amount of intelligence the police have right now if not through them.
Seoul Metropolitan police later took over Yang's financial-related data from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and began investigations into Yang's alleged sexual favors for foreign investors.
When asked about the allegations in a recent phone call with a reporter, the casino marketer in question stated, "I have nothing to say."
He has since then closed all his social media accounts and erased all records.