Seungri’s alleged violation of the anti-prostitution laws has continued to be a major developing story, and it last left off when he was booked by police and his status was changed to a suspect. At the center of this has always been the credibility of the texts, as YG Entertainment and Yuri Holdings have both denied their validity. Thus, it seems weird that international K-pop media has ignored reports out of Korea that say police confirmed that after investigation the KakaoTalk group chat was genuine. A police official said, “Following analysis of the KakaoTalk conversations, it was confirmed that the chat room actually existed and the conversations were not fabricated or manipulated.“

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Update

As some fans are calling the translation into question due to an alleged lack of corroborating sources, I’m providing three other Korean sources (1/2/3), somebody else’s translation, as well as another corroborating source. Thanks.

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So basically, unless Seungri’s lawyers can somehow challenge that the KakaoTalk conversations are legitimate, there’s no real need to tip-toe around this issue anymore as if there’s no public evidence that Seungri was involved in wrongdoing. It’s all there and it’s terrible.

I really don’t understand how this had not been deemed worthy of inclusion internationally as news when it’s arguably the most relevant piece of information to the police naming him a suspect in the investigation.

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Furthermore the group chats were exposed after a celebrity (likely Jung Joon Young) took their phone in to be repaired and a worker served as the whistleblower on this whole thing.

According to their report, the chatroom messages were obtained from a fellow celebrity’s phone. The report explained that a celebrity, who is also in the same chatroom, sent in his cellphone to get repaired. The full story was discovered through this cellphone and this is how the whistleblowing and the subsequent investigations began.

Judging by how they were acquired (through the physical phone), this seems to make it difficult to challenge the validity of the group chats.

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Meanwhile, Seungri is now banned from leaving the country.

On March 11, The Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency banned Seungri from leaving the country after booking him, meaning that his status was changed from that of a target of investigation (the stage before someone becomes a suspect in Korean criminal law) to that of a suspect.



Amazingly, and perhaps disturbingly, this appears to just be getting started.