Rotten Mango - #338: ‘Parasite’ Actor Found Dead After 2 Women Blackmailed Him & 19 Hour Police Interrogation
Episode Date: February 22, 2024In South Korea - there were 2 women sitting inside a prison cell together. One was in for fraud. The other for drugs. But they had a lot in common. They were both young. Pretty. And wanted a lot of mo...ney. Around the time their friendship developed - on the other side of the world - at the 92nd Academy Awards (The Oscars), Lee Sun Kyun was standing on stage with the cast of ‘Parasite.’ He was at the height of his career - internationally acclaimed actor and family man. Within 4 years - he would be found dead in his car after a 19 hour interrogation by the police, leaked personal phone calls, $300k lost to blackmailers, and his life completely ruined. And those two girls - would have everything to do with it. Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Ba-da-bing Ba-da-boo.
In a prison cell in South Korea, there's these two very pretty, very young girls sitting
at the edge of their prison beds.
They're in the same cell and they're either going to be very friendly or they're going
to rip each other apart by the end of this.
There's going to be no middle ground here.
So they start feeling each other out.
And how old are you?
I'm 95.
You?
Side note, in Korea, usually when someone asks you for for your age you give them the year of your birth first. It's interesting
But 95 meaning 1995 so by this point she would have been what maybe 24 25 when they met
It's so interesting. Isn't that like more math you have to do?
Then I'm like, okay, what does that mean?
I guess they don't really care how old you are
They want to know if you're older
and how many years in relation.
But then when you give birthdays and dates,
it gets confusing, right?
Yeah, okay, so they all they care about the seniority.
Like, am I?
So if we're both 95, then the next question
would be what month?
And then it's very quick to decide who's older.
The other girl goes, I'm 91.
So that means I'm four years older than you.
I'm your unni, I guess, which is like an older sister.
So what are you in here for?
Fraud, you, drugs.
These two girls, Nami and SJ, would smile at each other.
Cause this was good.
This was very good.
They got to planning.
They promised each other once they got out,
they would get apartments in the same building,
just a few floors apart, so that they could always be together.
They felt a friendship that was developing.
And while they're planning their futures out together, on the other side of the world,
Parasite was winning an Academy Award for Best Picture.
Standing on stage, feeling on top of the world, would be Lee Sung-kyun.
He was an A-list actor in South Korea already, but this is like a new height of his career,
a new height of fame.
He's internationally known now, but in less than four years, he would end up dead.
And these two girls from prison would have something to do with it. We would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for Rotten Mango to support
the Jed Foundation, a non-profit that protects emotional health and prevents suicides
for our nation's teens and young adults by giving them the skills and supports that
they need to thrive today, but also tomorrow.
This episode's partnerships have also made it possible to support Rotten Mango's growing
team of dedicated researchers and translators.
We'd also like to thank you guys for your continued support as we work on our mission
to be worthy advocates of these causes.
Now as always, full show notes are available at rottenmangopodcast.com.
We did have our Korean translators and researchers assist on this case, but I will say that there
is a lot going on and there's a lot of other people involved.
Conspiracies about why this became such an overblown investigation.
There's differing sources on the exact timeline of events, we
try to gather all the accurate facts of the case and compel them in an easy to digest
format for you whilst we try our best to remain neutral. But if there is anything at all that
is lost in translation, miscommunicated, or even anything additional that you would like
us to know about this case, please let us know down in the comments. And a quick content
warning, there is brief mention of suicide in this episode, so if
that is something that might bring you to a dark place today, please just take it easy,
skip this one, go watch a comfort show and stay safe.
So with that being said, let's get started.
Nami had been out of prison for a while and everything was working out relatively like
she had planned.
She's living in the same apartment complex as her best friend Estre that she met in prison.
She's running her own business that's doing really well.
And then boom, a text message comes in ready to ruin everything for Nami.
An unknown profile on Telegram messages her.
The user's name is Nenem Tin.
Nami has never heard of this username.
She has no idea who this is.
This person isn't even in her contacts.
It's a total stranger.
She goes to open the message and it reads,
the stuff on your photo albums.
What is this person even talking about?
What are you talking about?
So she texts back, what about my photo albums?
A lot of fucking celebrity photos,
enough to make the nation flip shit, huh?
Whoever this person was, they knew exactly what kind of line of work that Nami was in, so she quickly texts back, unfazed.
My goodness, I didn't know we were still living in the past era.
I'm feeling under the weather, so I'm just gonna head to sleep now.
What an odd exchange, like who the hell is this person?
Nami's trying so hard to play it cool but it is bothering her.
She immediately screenshots all of the text messages and sends them to her best friend
SJ and the both of them they go into detective mode.
They're trying to investigate but this is an account from Telegram which is anonymous.
They have nothing to go off of but maybe the blackmailer's username.
Texting cadence.
Any hints in the messages themselves, which are basically none.
They barely exchanged messages so far.
So let's start with the name,
De-neum-tin.
S.J. The Friend immediately screenshots something
and sends it to Nami.
It's a package of instant noodles,
bibim-myeon, which is like a cold spicy stir-fried noodle,
but the brand calls that noodle, De-neum-tin.
It's a household brand in South Korea.
So this is just a food brand?
Yeah, so I guess it would be the same
as someone's username being SpaghettiOs.
It's a brand by Chef Boyardee.
Like that's the name of their product.
But it's technically, I don't know if you would call it
spaghetti, but you get the idea.
It's very brand specific.
So SJ sends Nami a screenshot of the noodle packaging and she says Nami.
Young people these days call bibimyeon by the brand's name instead.
nae nae tin. Do you think this person messaging you is...
And Nami's like, I know exactly who it is. Precisely. It's chung da eun.
So this case is actually has a lot of very random bizarre people involved.
One of them being Chung Da Eun.
That's their name, Da Eun.
Da Eun is kind of famous.
They're an 얼짱 contestant winner.
얼짱 is literally translates to best face.
Like 얼 is 얼그를, face, 얼.
And then 짱 is like the best.
So they would have these reality shows, contestant shows, contest shows,
where they would bring in the best faces from the nation
and just basically whoever has the ideal face
wins the contest.
Like a beauty contest.
Yes, but it's very face specific.
It's not personality.
You don't really like answer questions.
You don't do the bikini shows.
It's all about your face.
Is it like a really prestige title? or is it more like a TV?
Oh, it's like a real award.
Well, I wouldn't say it's like Miss America, but it is, um, it's very,
it's a high compliment to be called an altang.
But it's not really something that you have to win through that competition.
It's you could call anyone on the internet and altang.
It's a compliment.
Yes. And they have a very specific look.
It's like that perfect face look.
Like I would say maybe Karina from Aespa
is the best comparison.
Like that is the it look.
And Daeun got famous for having a good face.
And eventually using that fame,
Daeun would start working in the music industry.
But probably what they're the most known for
is dating Han Seo-hee.
She's gonna become very important in this. She is probably one of the most known for is dating Han Seo-hee. She's gonna become very important in this.
She is probably one of the most controversial K-pop trainees to ever exist. She's been involved in
almost every major K-pop idol scandal. The two of them briefly dated then had a very public and
messy breakup where they both accused each other of being physically violent and abusive. So side
note about Han Seo-hee, she was involved in Big Bang Top's weed scandal
that happened in like 2011.
Okay.
Yeah, so she's just kind of involved in all the drama.
Okay.
Any drama, she's in there somehow.
Now, after this breakup between Han Seo-hee,
she's gonna get a question later.
And Jeong Dal-un, they all run in the same circle still.
So they all hang out with the same people even after they broke up.
And they hang out with Nami and S.J.
Okay, wow.
Yeah.
So Da Eun also has a criminal history stemming from selling drugs on Telegram.
And this is where the dots start connecting some more.
Da Eun's Telegram username used to be Jjapagetti, which is a brand of black bean noodle.
So black bean noodle is the dish.
But Dapagetti is a very specific noodle brand's
version of that dish, and they call it Dapagetti.
It's not even black bean noodles,
it's the brand's name for it,
just as how Nenim-Tin is not spicy cold noodles.
It's the brand's name for it.
So that's how she made a connection
because she always uses brand's name as her name.
And Ta-eun is younger than them in early 20s.
So they're like, okay, young people call BB Myeon, Naen Naen team, you know, which older people don't really do that.
They also really like to use these brand names for food as their username.
And on top of that, the two girls remember that Ta-eun also had a bit of coding experience. So Talun was involved with some
previous drug scandals. Yeah, just a lot of scandals in general. Scandals in general, I see, I see,
and okay, got it. And they were arrested for drug usage. Okay. Yes. Now the two girls remember
that Talun also has a bit of coding experience
So to them everything is clicking everything is making sense
Ta-eun did this Ta-eun hacked into Nami's photo album and got all the pictures of the celebrities and is now
Blackmailing her because Ta-eun is the blackmailer
Whoever the spicy cold noodles were though, they're just getting started. They text Nami some more.
You're fucking ignoring my text.
When I see that you've clearly read it, I'll go straight to the celebrities instead then.
Get ready to get fucked.
Another text.
Make $75,000 by Wednesday and I'll add in another $8,000 for each day that you're late.
I'm not gonna ask for more after this, I'm not some sort of gangster.
Get all the cash that I want by Wednesday
and put it in the fire hydrant in front of your house.
Listen to me, unless you wanna ruin everything
for everybody else, don't fuck up everyone else's life.
Just fuck up your own.
Audio files, videos, photos, I have it all.
Your whole place, your whole business, it's going down.
The blackmailer starts listing off a little bit of what they know, just a little taste of what's about to come.
And this has been redacted from the reports.
Redacted, abusive power, redacted, drug trafficking, redacted, drugs.
Each one of those redacted names were a high-powered people and or celebrities. The last one on that list was an A-list actor in South Korea,
internationally acclaimed by playing the rich father
from Oscar-winning film, Family Man, Lee Sung-kyun.
The blackmailer texted Nami,
tomorrow I'm gonna start with Lee, so be careful.
If you ever see your husband has a strange charge
on his card every Friday night for a bakery
that you've never even been to before and you guys are in South Korea, you might want to look into that.
There are establishments called room salons and they can fake receipts to look like bakery receipts,
snack shop receipts, or other small business receipts, but in reality, they're just hostess bars.
And Nami was a madame at one of these entertainment establishments.
So in Japan, they're hostess bars.
In Korea, they're kind of called room salons.
There's a little bit of overlap.
There's a lot of similarity, but there's some differing points.
They're like fancy karaoke bars in Korea with private rooms.
So the sole purpose is entertaining men.
They remind me, again, quite a bit of the Japanese hostess clubs in the sense that you walk in,
you get escorted into a private room, most rooms have the karaoke set up so you can sing
or you can pick hostesses to sing and spend time with you, and a big part of it is de-stressing
from this corporate world while you're having someone tending to you and boosting your ego.
But that part is the same, but Korean room salons have a few slight differences like the fact that they have a pretty most of them have a pretty strict
No phones rule in the rooms
No phones which makes everything feel just a bit more intimate just a bit more private and Korean room salons
They focus heavily on
exclusivity and status symbols
Some clubs they won't even let you in.
You walk in, you're like,
I've got $10,000 that I want to blow right now.
They're like, sorry, sir, you're not a member.
So you can't.
And in Korea, if you ever hear something called
Ita and Ita, this is what they're referring to.
There's two tiers, two room salons.
Ita is when you're on the
premises, when you're in the club or in the room salon, you can usually flirt, get that emotional
connection. Sometimes you could probably fondle the room salon girls depending on the room salon,
right? Depending on the establishment. And then there's something called Ita, which is level two, second tier. This means that after the room salon date, you go out, usually off the premises,
and you go full intimacy.
These room salons, they can get really pricey.
If you're going to go to a really nice luxurious one in the center of Gangnam,
you can expect to pay around $500 to $1500 per person per night.
Yeah, it's insane. You have to pay for the room feed,
then the food and the drinks,
then you have to tip the hostesses.
And then there's different leagues of salons.
There's a ranking system for the girls
at these types of clubs.
So you've got the pujangdong style.
Now this style is very overtly sexual.
Sometimes the girls you walk in,
they're just wearing their undergarments.
Then you have the club girls.
They're a bit more clothed than just their undergarments,
but it's like the next tier up.
Then you get higher up, then you have the 15%.
This means 15% of the top prettiest girls in room salons.
They call it like a 15% club.
Which means you have a certain league of aesthetics
in the girls there.
Very attractive.
They probably will not tolerate touching inside of the store.
Then you have the TPs, the 10 pro, which means 10%.
10 pro, yeah.
So girls, they look like celebrities.
They're usually very educated.
And if you're filthy rich, you could even sponsor one of the girls to be like, I don't
know, your girlfriend, your side girlfriend.
Now side note, it does seem like a few celebrities have been seen frequenting these room salons
and I know it's a really controversial topic, but some netizens say that there might be a
reason why celebrities might like these room salons more than the average civilian.
The no phones rule, that might ease some of their anxiety of always feeling like they're
going to be filmed by other people when they're in establishments, that other parties, not even in the room that they're
in, are filming them, like they're just trying to have fun, right?
And perhaps to some of the older generations of celebrities, it's purely just habit.
Apparently back then, if you wanted to land a role in a movie, you would have to shake
hands with the director in a room salon.
It was so prevalent that when a new
up and coming director came out
and started his own production company,
he was this close to naming it NRS.
What's that?
No room salons because he hated it so much.
He was like, this is a part of the industry
that I wish would just die off.
I hate it.
Like that's how strong and prevalent it was.
So it is very deep rooted in the-
The celebrity culture.
Like I think it starts when you don't really have a choice,
you just have to go.
And the one in question today is dubbed a 1% room salon
in Kung Nam, meaning they only offer memberships.
You cannot step in there and book a private room
unless you're a member, even if you have the money,
which adds to the exclusivity and the discretion of the business, only the top 1% can afford
this room salon.
And it's speculated that a few hours in this type of club with 3-4 people in a private
room, that's about $6-8,000.
And because of how expensive the barrier of entry is, less people would go and it might
honestly make a great place for celebrities to feel like they're getting away. I'm not recommending it. I'm not
saying that they should, but I can maybe kind of see why. The barrier for entry is
so high. Maybe it feels like it's more secretive and not many people are gonna
out you and talk about it and post it and like little sneaky pictures of you
online and you can finally just have some fun. Nami runs one of those,
a 1% club in Kungnam. But there's a given take in place for room salon madams and their high
profile customers. I don't want to say clientele because that makes it sound like they're buying
intimacy, right? That's not what I'm insinuating at all. But just, you know, customers, patrons of
an establishment. Discretion, you get paid to not talk about what you see.
Once that contract, once that trust is broken,
nobody's gonna wanna visit Nami's business ever again.
And this blackmailer is going to ruin her entire career,
even if Nami gives the blackmailer the money.
Who's to say that they're gonna stop there?
What if they keep going?
What if they keep coming back for more money?
It's never gonna end. Ding! Another message from the Noodle Telegram account comes in. Do as I say unless
you want to ruin someone else's life. I don't think you know the situation that you're in right now.
If you ignore me again today, I'm gonna reach out to your mom. Nami sent more screenshots of these
conversations to SJ, her best friend. And SJ's just trying to warn Nami.
Like, don't piss off the hackers.
Don't piss off the blackmailers.
Just figure out what exactly they know,
like what in your photo albums.
She texts, don't turn them all into enemies, Nami.
Nami's hotheaded though.
She texts back, yeah, well, I'm not gonna
give them a freaking penny.
Just find out what they have on you first.
Hear them out.
SJ tries to comfort her best friend Nami.
I mean, even if they know you're doing drugs, they can't touch any of your celebrity friends like Yi Sung-gyun, you know?
The parasite actor. How are they going to touch him?
Yeah, I guess that's true.
But I had an idea.
Should I just tell Yi Sung-gyun Lee?
Just tell him that I've been hacked and that I'm
being blackmailed into giving them $500,000? Wait, so she's about a blackmail de-actor
while being blackmailed. She's being blackmailed for $75,000 and she's going to go turn around
to the parasite actor and say, hey Lee, I need $500,000. Otherwise, people at the press are going to know that we hang out.
Do you want to be seen with the madam of a room salon?
That's crazy.
When you have a wife and two children.
Is that what you want?
So Nami has this brilliant idea of playing both sides.
She would lie to the blackmailer and get money from Lee.
Then she would lie to Lee and say that she was going to give the money to the blackmailer,
but neither of those things were going to happen.
It's not even like she wants to take the 500k, give 75k to the blackmailer and then keep
the rest.
She wants to keep it all.
She's like, I'm just going to screw both of them because whatever.
Wow.
Yeah.
She shares her bright idea with her best friend SJ and she texts, she texts, I'm just gonna play Lee. Should I do this?
No, you shouldn't.
Because Nami, if you don't give money to the blackmailer,
what happens to Lee Oppa who actually gave you the money?
And Nami just responds,
Oh, well, he'll just be a fucking R-word.
Nami starts texting Lee Sung-kyun, Lee,
stating that she's being blackmailed,
and her phone was hacked,
and the press is gonna find out
that he's basically having an affair with her,
if you will.
He has an actress wife that he's been with
for over a decade.
So much of his image in the public arena
is being part of the perfect family.
They're kind of the it couple.
They're like a middle-aged but it couple. They're both at their prime
I mean they share two beautiful children together
But now now the blackmailer knows that lead the perfect family man has been spending some time with Nami the madam of a room
salon in her private residence and
For that information Nami is like, okay, you know what?
Opa I negotiated and I got it down from 500,000 to 250,000.
So I'm gonna need 250,000.
Nami starts texting Lee, okay, Opa,
I have to make a choice now.
First things first, Opa, you need to live.
Even if something happens to me, you have to live.
That's why I'm telling you all these things
about what's going on when it would be better for me
if I don't tell you.
I asked around and there's a lot of people who have lost everything because they didn't
comply with these types of threats from blackmailers.
If we ignore this person and they go to the media about this, you and me, we're all done
for.
Like not saying this relationship is done for, but she's insinuating our lives, our
careers are done for.
Just trust me this once and comply with the demands of $250,000 and I will make sure nothing incriminating
about you gets out.
I'm gonna turn myself in today for questioning
because they're saying that they're gonna go to the police
about my drug reports.
Do you think that they're gonna run forensics on my phone?
Nami continues trying to get $250,000 out of Lee.
Also, those people will not come back
once we give them the $250,000.
They told me that they have no reason
to come back and ask for more money.
But right now, if I ignore them and you ignore them,
I mean, it could go to the press.
Then at that point, both of our lives would be over
and like, I mean, just trust me,
I'm gonna take care of the situation so cleanly.
Just trust me.
Nami tries to soften the situation
by saying things like,
Sai, the world really has gone crazy these days. Cry face. Don't worry too much,
though. Lee texts back, okay. She texts, I'll call you later during the day. Life is so hard.
Are you available to talk during the day? I'll call you later. Lee gets her the money,
$250,000 in cash,
but he was very clearly hesitant.
You can tell from the text messages.
He doesn't know if this is the route that he wants to take.
So he's not like, oh yeah, take the money,
we gotta make sure this never gets out.
He's just kind of like confused
and he doesn't understand really
what's the best choice at that moment.
It's alleged that Lee had to go to a close friend of his, Mr. Kim,
who also knows Nami, to get alone from him for the money.
Because Lee's wife has access to their bank accounts, and if a quarter million dollars just goes missing,
I mean, it's gonna be a big deal. The cash gets delivered to Nami, who promises Lee that she's gonna give it to the blackmailer,
who will then shut up about the whole thing and they'll be over it.
But instead, Nami takes the money and goes on the run. She stops responding to everyone,
she ghosts everyone, the blackmailer, Lee, even SJ, her best friend, she ghosts them all for $250,000.
And so now, the blackmailer is pissed. And the blackmailer is coming after SJ sending messages.
Nenem Thien is reaching out to SJ on Telegram.
Nami's best friend threatening to ruin SJ's life unless you can get your best friend Nami to come back with my money.
SJ starts sending desperate messages to Nami.
Where are you Nami? This is insane. You can't do this to me.
I'm never gonna see you again. Don't ever talk to me ever again if this is how you're gonna be.
Don't even reach out.
Nami finally responds, I'll call you soon.
Call me before noon today.
Noon comes and passes.
SJ texts again.
Are you calling me soon Nami?
Please help me understand
because if this is what I think it is,
I will forever disappear from your life.
I think the cops are trying to come to my house.
I have to verify it's the cops, but I don't know I don't know so please
Nenem team keeps contacting me if they reach out to me one more time
I'm gonna report them to the police
Don't try to get me to understand your side Ben do it now if not. I never want to see you again ever
Nami finally responds stop contacting my friends in acquaintances asking where I am and I'm sorry. I wronged you in all of this
Okay, I'm sorry
Because now it's on SJ now the pressure is on SJ get me my money
So she really just Nami took 250k and that's it. Yeah, that's that's her exit. Yeah
SJ texture. Yeah, well, don't worry.
I will have no reason to ever reach out to you again.
Nami says, let me just clean this up.
Okay, let me clean up the mess and then I'll reach out to you.
Don't forget to eat.
Like it's like a, don't forget to, like don't skip meals.
It's a very enduring term, which is bizarre in this moment.
But how is SJ just gonna wait for Nami to clean this mess up
when SJ's life is on the line too?
SJ and a man by the name of Samuel
walk into the Intang police department
with 30 pieces of black hair and a clear baggy
and a very bizarre story.
I'd like to report a drug crime.
Samuel, the man that's accompanying SJ,
tells the police that his girlfriend got a job
at a room salon and the manager there
The madam if you will got her intentionally hooked on drugs
He said that he did absolutely everything to get her off these drugs, but she just wouldn't quit
So he suspected the madam is keeping her addicted for the purpose of the business
Because he can't convince his own girlfriend to get off the drugs
He decided to go to the source of the drugs
He goes to the madam of the business and tells her, hey, if you don't quit supplying
my girlfriend with drugs, I'm going to report you to the police.
He was so shocked because she just sat there and said, how much money do you want?
That was not what he was after.
He doesn't want money.
He just wants his girlfriend to be safe.
The police are like, okay, kind of a wild story. So what is SJ doing here? SJ hands
over the bag of hairs. This is Nami's best friend. She hands over screenshots of text
messages. The woman that got Samuel's girlfriend hooked on drugs is my best friend Nami. She's
the madam of a very famous room salon and she provides drugs for celebrities.
SJ was so annoyed at Nami for leaving her like that, for scamming Lee out of $250,000.
But also, SJ was so mad at Nami,
mainly for not giving her her share.
All SJ wanted was $75,000,
but Nami got $250,000 and left.
Now what?
All that work, creating a blackmail account,
I mean, it can't go to waste, right?
SJ did it all?
SJ is the original blackmailer.
What?
Yeah, because Nami would tell her all these wild stories
and send her pictures of all the celebrities
that she would meet at her room salon.
And now SJ is like
Oh, you know what? I need some money. So I'm gonna blackmail my best friend
This is crazy. Yeah
And Nami has no idea. No, she's gonna find out but as of right now, no, she thinks it's town
But they're both so fucked up too. Like exactly. think people- Like the level of evilness just keep on going.
Yeah.
Like one crime they follow up with another
with something even worse and worse and worse.
It's like they're willing to commit the crimes
but they're also willing to do it
to the people that they're supposed to love the most
and like be the closest to.
It's really bizarre.
They have no moral standing
and a lot of netizens argue which one is worse
between the two.
It's really hard to decide.
Yeah, no, they're both evil.
Yeah.
I mean, that's clear, but like if you had to choose, like which one's worse, I think
a lot of netizens are having a hard time because it's just both so uniquely evil.
It's just so bizarre.
So now after reporting Nami, SJ text Mr. Kim, Again, this is the Parasite actor's close friend,
the one that also knows Nami.
And he's also the one that loaned the cash, remember?
Oh yeah, yeah, Mr. Kim.
Yes.
So SJ contacted Mr. Kim.
Yes, Mr. Kim already gave $250,000 to Nami.
Yes.
SJ reaches out to him,
trying to get more money out of him,
because Nami ran away.
SJ basically reaches out and is like,
hi, I'm the original blackmailer.
Nami took the freaking money and ran.
So I'm gonna need you guys to give me my cut.
Pay me my money.
I never got paid, so the blackmail threats are still active.
But Mr. Kim just responds to,
there's no response from our side because giving more money,
I mean, it seems like this side has given up.
Like we've given up.
Do you really think that we will believe
that this will ever end?
Even if you say this is it
and that Nami took the rest of the money and ran.
Honestly, I don't know.
We don't know what to believe.
And I'm just in the middle trying to keep this under wraps.
I even sent my own money too.
Geez, I mean, I think the best way to resolve all of this
is if we all meet up together,
sign some sort of contract, otherwise no deal with more money.
Is Mr. Kim a celebrity too?
Do we know anything about him or he's anonymous?
I don't want to say he was Docs, but his identity was released, I believe, by a YouTuber.
And there are, I don't know if this is the same name.
Some people say he's just a businessman
and has no correlation with a smaller celebrity.
Some people say, no, it is the smaller celebrity.
I think he's just a businessman.
Yeah.
So he's like, we need to sign,
we need to get together and sign some documents
if you want any cash at all.
Like a document saying that you will never bring this up.
Like you are bound by, I don't know, an NDA or something
because this is just crazy.
You can't just keep asking us for more money.
Mr. Kim goes, or we can just go the legal route because this is extortion.
Honestly, I don't get any of this.
Even with that amount of money, 250K, Nami will last maybe five years.
So why are we even doing stuff like this right now?
But SJ is very desperate.
She keeps messaging him, almost pitching herself like she's on Shark Tank.
Sir, let's do the original agreed upon deal of $75,000.
I really need the money and you can see, you can see if I will ever threaten you guys
ever again, I will disappear with the money.
I will stop looking for Nami.
If this ever gets out to the world, I will take full responsibility for it because there's
really no need for that to get everybody involved. I just really need the money tomorrow right away.
Well, is she telling them that she was the original blackmailer?
Yeah, but she's not saying she's SJ. She's messaging them through Nanan theme, the noodle
account. Yeah, now the messages are written really polite. It's actually kind of odd. She's
blackmailing them, but it sounds more like she's a distant relative asking for a loan.
But when Mr. Kim doesn't budge and give her what she wants, she fully lashes out. She texts,
first of all, I didn't know Nami was gonna take the money and run.
I didn't know that she was gonna eat all the money and fucking explode. So like is that really my fault?
Mr. Kim says, regardless, I'll have to pass on this deal. Okay, fine. Then I'll continue bothering people around you guys.
Besides, today I will give you a deal.
Remember how I was asking for $150,000?
Today let's make it $40,000.
How about that?
You should probably take the deal with this kind of cut.
Try standing in my shoes for once, sir.
Mr. Kim makes a deal.
And the blackmailer tells him
that he will send an assistant to grab the money.
That assistant is SJ.
Yeah.
So she texts him on her little noodle account.
I'm going to send my assistant to grab the cash from you in the parking lot.
And guess who shows up?
SJ.
What?
But Mr. Kim is like, oh, that's probably just the assistant for the blackmailer.
Yeah.
Oh, he doesn't know SJ.
No. Yeah. It's like a whole thing.
Ultimately, SJ gets $40,000 in cash in the parking lot of a grilled eel
restaurant in Gangnam and just to recap, SJ is the original noodle blackmailer.
She was texting Nami about the blackmail threats.
Like she has no idea what's going on.
So she's Nami's blackmailer and her best friend giving her advice on what to do with the blackmailer
That's why she's saying like no don't play Lee like don't do that don't run off with the money
Don't make enemies just see what they want
Wow
She ends up getting $40,000 from Lee Nami the madam of the business ends up getting blackmailed
But plays Lee and runs off with $250,000.
And it takes about three to four weeks
to be issued a passport.
Nami was a few days in when she was caught by the police.
Police had records that she applied for a passport
and a visa planning to flee the country.
But flower snakes are known not to travel that fast.
That's what people call Nami, a flower snake.
A guldem, that's what we call them.
Okay, so a flower snake is the Korean version of a gold digger,
but it's actually a lot more scathing than a gold digger.
Gold digger is like, okay, I don't know how offended I'd be
if I was called a gold digger, but a flower snake,
it's such a ruthless term.
It's a woman who waits in the gardens, like a little snake,
near all the beautiful flowers
just waiting for someone close to come by.
They slither towards their next victim, seduce them, and then ask them for money in return
for their silence.
So it's not even someone that wants to date someone with money.
It's more so, I'm gonna literally sleep with that person, someone that I know shouldn't
be sleeping with me, whether it's a married man, a company executive, someone that would be in trouble if the world found out't be sleeping with me whether it's a married man a company executive
Someone that would be in trouble if the world found out that they slept with me and immediately afterwards
I'm gonna ask them for money in return for my silence
It's like blackmailing. They're literally blackmailers
October 18th 2023 the day after SJ reported her Nami was arrested for suspicion of drug use in her room salon
She was under suspicion of using Phylophon,
which it's known as Satan's Flem,
where Satan's mucus in South Korea.
It's crystal meth.
Side note, this very specific kind was created in Japan during World War II to give soldiers
to make them more stimulated during the war so that they could fight harder and longer.
So there's that.
It's become a huge recreational drug issue in East Asia now.
So Nami was arrested, brought in to be questioned.
She's drug tested.
It comes back positive for psychotropic substances, but that's a huge range.
I'm just going to be honest with you.
That could include caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, and even certain pain meds, but also heroin,
LSD, cocaine cocaine and crystal meth.
So there's that. At this point, the police have testimonies from two people
that Nami is not only doing drugs, but selling drugs. So from SJ and Samuel.
They're like, yeah, she's selling drugs, she's doing drugs. And South Korea is a
country that's super strict on drugs. So Nami is a slam dunk case, right?
For the police?
But nothing is impressive about catching a flower snake.
You don't get a pat on the back.
You don't get a pat on the back for catching a flower snake.
You don't get an award.
You don't get a promotion for catching a flower snake, especially if that flower snake
has six prior drug convictions.
What's so great about the seventh drug conviction?
If anything, it's almost insulting. A seventh time, really? You couldn't catch her again? Like the seventh time?
The police didn't want a flower snake. They wanted to take down a napping alligator in the grass.
And the only thing is, you're more likely to be killed from a snake than an alligator, statistically.
an alligator. Statistically. I would say that I have pretty medium skin when it comes to other people's opinions,
but one thing that will keep me up at night is grammar, but specifically just on emails.
Grammar in real life I'm not such a stickler about, but if you correct my grammar via email,
I will probably lose sleep over it. A few years ago, I actually avoided responding to emails
because it gave me just so much to think about.
It would take me like 30 minutes to draft a single email
because I wanted to make sure that I don't come across
unprofessional.
But I've been using Grammarly for years
and it just makes my life so much easier.
Grammarly is free to use and it can help with just about
anything from corporate emails to school essays.
It'll do spell check for you obviously, but it also
grade your text on correctness, clarity, and even engagement, and it'll give you suggestions on how
to improve your text. Grammarly has this really cool advanced AI feature that makes it so that the
text comes out exactly the way I want it to sound with just a few clicks. I can choose from different
formality and tone options, so for emails I usually do formal, confident, and direct, but you can also add your profession
and even which English dialect you speak, so your text really comes out true to your
voice.
It is such a game changer.
And the best part about Grammarly is just how much time it saves me.
I went from literally taking hours to respond to emails to just minutes thanks to Grammarly.
And Grammarly's AI feature really makes it easy
to respond to difficult work conversations.
I even tell my researchers to use Grammarly
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and more impactful, plus it's free.
And the reason that I trust Grammarly
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Sign up and download for free at grammarly.com slash podcast.
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to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash rotten now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in Shopify.com slash rotten October 19th 2023 just three hours after Nami's very first
interrogation finishes an exclusive article is published online about an unnamed gigantic A-list actor going by the name of Mr. L
That is now part of a huge drug investigation
It's very cryptic. I mean so cryptic to the point of being uninteresting
Even if we can guess Mr. L stands for Mr. Lee, it could be Mr. Lim,
it could even be Mr. Park who's to say that the L is the first letter of the actor's surname. That's still a huge population of people to go through. The last name Lee in South Korea
is the second most popular after Kim. About 15% of the population share the last name Lee. So who's
gonna know who this actor is? But very quickly, almost suspiciously quickly, rumors start spreading
online that it's Lee Seong-gyun. Everyone confused. How how would anyone know that it's him?
Especially given the circumstances Lee Sung-kyun is not even someone that the general public would assume would do drugs
He's 48. He's got a wife respected actress of a wife two children
He doesn't really fit this young club scene the man just golfs when he goes on to variety shows reality shows
All he talks about is his love for his kids and golf. Like he's obsessed with golf.
The reporter would eventually come out to state that the police gave them the name.
Just exposed the fact that Lee was involved in an open drug investigation. And the media
ran with it. They dropped article after article after article that Lee was accused of cheating on his wife
at a room salon and taking drugs with the girls there and everybody lost their freaking
minds.
They went genuinely crazy.
Truly the press, they're having a field day.
They're calling this the mini burning sun scandal because it had two of the biggest names in
the Korean entertainment industry attached to it.
Parasite actor Lee Sung-kyun and G-Dragon of Big Bang.
Originally, G-Dragon would be the bigger focus of the media.
People were going in and over-analyzing
every single video of G-Dragon.
They were looking for any strange body movements,
unfocused eyes, slurred speech,
anything that could indicate that he was a drug user.
People were saying, oh, well, top from Big Bang was busted for weed usage. Seung Lee from Burning Sun, right? And then
now, now G-Dragon, we knew it. We knew it all along. There's a video of G-Dragon at the airport
taken by paparazzi that became one of the trending videos associated with this case.
It shows him walking through the airport while paparazzi follow him around taking pictures and
videos and he can't seem to stay still.
He's touching his face, he's touching his hair, readjusting his clothing, he's stretching.
Which side note, I saw the video and I do think that he strikes me as maybe a little
bit more active with his movements than I would normally expect walking through the
airport but there's so much context to this.
First of all, we don't know if he has any sort of
health condition that could lead to something like that,
but also, even if he doesn't,
he's a celebrity in South Korea.
His every move, his every look, facial expression,
breath is gonna get analyzed and dissected
regardless of a drug scandal or not.
And as he's walking through the airport with paparazzi,
like it's just so awkward.
Nobody's really talking to him.
They're just like following him around.
I mean, I don't know.
I feel like I would maybe move around and fidget
and try to, I would feel insecure.
I would constantly fix my hair.
Maybe I have a scratch and then I would try to adjust
my clothing because they're taking pictures
and I know these pictures are gonna be front page somewhere.
Right? I mean, I can't imagine that's a pleasant,
non-anxious, inducing, soothing experience.
But the comments started getting flooded after G-Dragon was revealed to be part of the Room
Cylon Drug Investigation. They were ruthless. Netizens wrote, Ha ha, so it's true. They
say addicts pretend to stretch because they can't keep their bodies still.
I'd be more surprised if he wasn't on drugs. This guy's a drug addict, look at him shaking like a dog.
Let's pretend we're all surprised you guys.
He really paved the way.
For criminals, he's the king of the drugs.
He really looks like the type to do crack anyway.
G-Dragon came out with a statement and basically begged the police to test him.
He stated to the public that he would be voluntarily submitting his own urine, hair, fingernail, and toenail samples to be tested for drug usage. This was kind of a pivotal
moment in the Korean entertainment industry. A lot of medicines have stated this is going to change
probably society's perception of these investigations because G-Dragon shows up at the police station
with press waiting for him outside the station.
This is his very first interrogation.
Voluntary. He's gonna submit all of his samples.
They're just the press, they're foaming at the mouth to get him to do something, say something, get arrested, anything.
G-Dragon shows up in a full suit,
black glasses, and he does not bow to the press, which is a huge thing for Korean celebrities.
If you do not bow to the press,
that means you think that you're God or something.
How dare you?
These are the people that made you famous.
This was significant.
This was him showing the press
that he was not gonna get bullied by them.
He does not bow,
and before he goes in to be questioned by the police,
G-Dragon answers a few questions from the press.
They ask, why are you making a voluntary appearance
for police questioning?
He looks at them and he does this
between every single question.
He looks at them like they're not even the same species.
He looks at them like they're insane.
They're unhinged.
Like why did you just ask me that?
He says, I'll know when I get inside.
Do you admit to charges that you've used drugs?
I have not committed any crime regarding drugs.
I'm appearing for questioning to clarify all allegations made.
It's best to answer any questions authorities may have as quickly as possible, so I should
probably not prolong these conversations right now.
You've rejected the charges against you.
Does that mean you think the investigation by the police is unfounded?
Even the press question here is so bizarre.
It's like they want him to badmouth the police outside the police station and put himself
in a situation where the police are going to want to ruin his life even more.
G-Dragon looks more bored than anything, and he just states, everything will come to light
in due course.
Then the press start hinting at the idea that G-Dragon dyed his hair to throw off the hair
drug test results.
When did you dye your hair?
And do you have hair loss problems?
I did not do anything like that.
Did you ever frequent the entertainment establishment
that's been mentioned?
We'll have to see about that.
Do you know the establishment's manager
or the doctor who's been accused of providing the drugs?
No, can I go now?
And do you wanna say something to your fans?
Which this is the absolute worst time
to bring something like this up.
I mean, it's just kind of gross.
What do you want him to say?
He wants to prove that he's not guilty by going in there
and this is a police investigation.
Like what do you mean
do you wanna say something to your fans right now?
G-Dragon literally takes like a full minute
to look at him like he's out of his mind
and he starts smirking and he's just flabbergasted and he says,
don't worry too much, can I go now?
Wow.
Side note, his body movements are exactly the same here
as when he was at the airport.
Once D-Dragon gets out of police questioning,
he was in there for four hours,
even more press is waiting for him.
He stops to answer questions and not necessarily
because he wants to, but more so as a formality.
But the press asked him some very strange things.
One of them asks, you claimed innocence
before you went in there.
Do you still stick by that stance?
He responds, wouldn't it be wrong if I changed my position?
What was the result of the urine test?
It came out negative.
From now on, I hope the authorities will carry out
an accurate and swift probe that will resolve this matter.
Are you willing to accept future summons
by the police to be questioned if they ask you to come?
If they call me, I would have to come, no?
Bro, what kind of question is that?
Yeah.
It's like, it's almost like, just tell us you did it.
Like, it's almost like that kind of tone.
Like, what are you talking about?
Just tell us you'll never listen to the police
and you don't want to cooperate.
Like, what?
What?
He literally looks at the press like they're crazy.
In today's probe, did the police show you any evidence
related to the allegations raised against you?
No, no they didn't.
I just hope no more energy is spent on unverified matters.
You were questioned for four hours.
What are the areas that the police focused on?
We just laughed a lot and then we ended it.
Could you please repeat that?
We just laughed.
You guys laughed.
That was a joke.
The fact that I'm being investigated on such a matter, what can I say?
The police too will have to make a decision based on my testimony if my words are of help to their ongoing probe or not.
What I want, if possible, is just the swift announcement of the detailed drug test lab results from my hair and fingernails.
What do you expect the test results to be?
Of course, it'll come out negative.
Once again, I have never administered drugs or given them to anyone.
A lot of people are watching.
Do you have anything else you'd like to say?
Yes, a lot of people are watching right now.
So I would just say there's no need to worry too much.
I hope they'll trust me and wait.
Thank you, that's all.
He does a very brief bow and heads back to his car.
G-Dragon's test results will all come back negative.
And he would post on Instagram,
才批举正, which means everything will always fall back into the right pattern,
almost like karma.
It's used frequently in settings when someone gets accused of doing something that they didn't do.
So they're being attacked, but it's almost a feeling of just wait
because the truth will settle in and everyone will realize what's been happening.
G-Dragon's black glasses that he wore during the public probe, the police probe, were $1,000
limited edition and they reportedly sold out immediately after his drug test came back
negative.
According to Dispatch, so take this how you will, but according to Dispatch, G-Dragon
visited Nami's room salon at least twice in 2023.
It was something that she would allegedly not shut up about and was non-stop bragging
about it.
Allegedly, she would even sneak videos of G-Dragon while he was going to use the restroom.
Not in the restroom, but like when he would walk up from the room and leave to go use
the restroom, she would sneak videos and send it to her friends.
She would text them things like, GD came to visit me again.
But later to the police, Nami would state, every time GD went to the restroom,
he would get up and use the restroom. G-Dragon would come back looking very strange.
Once I was very curious as to why,
so I slipped into the bathroom and I saw some very suspicious packaging there.
That's why he was called in for this probe. That is so vague.
That's the end?
That's the end.
That's like why he got involved in all of this.
What does she see?
Suspicious packaging.
I don't know if that means like a,
like a tiny little clear plastic bag of white powder.
I don't know what it means.
It could be a Toblerone bar packaging.
I don't know.
Suspicious packaging.
Wow. Wow.
Yeah.
That is so vague.
And coming from someone with six prior convictions
and affinity for blackmailing people
for hundreds of thousands of dollars,
someone that has proven to only be out for their own skin
and would even exaggerate stories to their friends
to appear a certain way,
it feels completely unfounded and not credible.
But the police would state that G-Dragon
was a drug suspect from that statement.
And just to clarify, these are just allegations that he would visit Nami.
We don't know if he for sure did, and even if he did go, that's not against the law.
What does that have to do with drugs?
But even with all of this going on, there was still an article that was posted titled,
Hair Removal All Over The Body.
There was still an article that was posted titled, hair removal all over the body.
The article alleged G-Dragon shaved all his body hair
and bleached his head hair,
to which his attorney made another statement.
G-Dragon has not removed his hair at all
since it was reported that he was booked.
He voluntarily submitted his hair, fingernails,
and toenails to prove his innocence as quickly as possible.
Again, all test results came back negative.
Even the National Forensic Service would confirm
that G-Dragon did not die or bleach his hair
recently.
But in this case, there is no such thing as innocent, toe-proven, guilty.
It really feels like a witch hunt.
Yes.
They just wanted a name to explode in the news.
But aren't you curious as to why?
Why? January of last year, there was a huge drug bust in the news. But aren't you curious as to why? Why?
January of last year, there was a huge drug bust in South Korea.
It was blasted all over the news.
The police found a drug trafficking ring where a group of individuals were growing using
and selling marijuana.
The police were so proud of themselves, officers are getting promoted left and right because
of that drug bust.
There were talks about how advanced the police were getting at tracking drug users, how competent they were becoming,
but there's actually a secret behind this brilliant police bust.
The police received a tip.
That's it, so simple, right?
So at first, the tip was from a woman
who was begging the police for help
to avoid her violent boyfriend.
She told authorities that she overheard
the boyfriend's plans to sell her into sex trafficking.
The police are like, yeah, well, we don't really have time for that.
First of all, he's your boyfriend. Second of all, you haven't been sold have you?
And third of all, we don't have proof that that's what he genuinely wants to do.
I mean if you don't like the idea then just break up with him. Clearly she
couldn't do that but they genuinely just could not care less. So the woman got
smart and the next time she called, she reported her boyfriend for dealing drugs. Suddenly the police are all ears. They're like,
this is deplorable. We got to do something about this. They're very interested in helping her
and saving her from the big, bad, scary drug dealing boyfriend. They tell her to get a pen
and paper and write down the list of things they want from her. Location of marijuana growing,
location of purchasing of marijuana, location of purchasing methamphetamines.
Purchasing of methamphetamines from who?
Question mark?
Eyewitness testimony.
So to who and at which location's question mark?
Not only were they just investigating a drug bust
rather than her whole situation with a boyfriend,
they wanted her to do the job for them.
Do all the investigating.
They're like, bring all that to us
and then we'll look into it.
Ooh, so exciting.
Whenever she brought up the sex crimes,
they just said, well, when you catch the dog,
everything comes together.
Like, let's just catch him and then, you know.
She put her life in danger
to give the police all the evidence they wanted.
But even then, they waited a full month
to arrest her boyfriend.
She was terrified for that full month,
just waiting for him to be taken in so that she wouldn't be caught snitching on him. Eventually, her boyfriend
gets arrested. They're front page pieces of the police's stellar jobs on the drug bust,
shining new promotions are handed down to the officers. But they're not even done. Some of
the officers would bring the girl back in asking her, did you sleep with any celebrities?
Cause he was trying to like sell you to sex trafficking. asking her, did you sleep with any celebrities? Because he was trying to sell you to sex trafficking.
So did you sleep with any celebrities?
What?
They just wanted a celebrity attached to it.
Because it would make it even bigger.
Wow.
And it all comes down to war.
Violence against women is nothing.
Violence against children is nothing.
Police don't get a cookie for that, but they do get a cookie for winning the battles in this war
against drugs. President Yoon waged war on drugs and told the police, at some point,
drugs are not only devastating the health and spirit of the people of South Korea,
but also destroying the dreams and hopes of the youth due to the neglect from government
authorities. The government will join all forces to win the war on drugs that has eaten away our entire
country.
This is the current president.
Yeah.
He's like really controversial by the way.
Now side note, I don't think South Korea's drug usage is that bad compared to a lot of
the other countries because of their geographical location.
It's actually very hard to smuggle drugs into South Korea.
Now they're strictly a drug ban country,
meaning consuming any drugs without a legitimate medical reason is illegal.
Even if you're a Korean citizen, you go to California where weed is legal.
You smoke weed, you come back to Incheon airport.
They can drug test you for weed.
If it's proven that you smoked weed in California where it's legal,
but you're a Korean citizen, you're going to get arrested. You're going to face prison
time as if you smoked weed in South Korea.
So to incentivize the quote war on drugs, President Yoon's administration stated that
they would prepare large-scale rewards, including special promotions for those who show achievements
in excellent cases against drugs.
To simplify, the police are almost dangerously incentivized
to focus on drug charges and that's it.
And they know that any big drug scandal or news
will be heavily watched, heavily monitored,
not just by their boss,
but their boss's, boss's, boss's, boss's, boss's,
the one that has the ability
to give you a life-changing promotion
with a giant payday.
It will be watched by the president of South Korea.
There's a speculation that the police felt a lot of pressure now.
They bit down on the cake way too early,
and now everyone in the nation is staring at them with icing all over their face,
and it's too late to back out now.
It's way too embarrassing.
You were talking about G-Dragon was name is clear.
Now they're like, what do we do now?
Yeah, like this is embarrassing like we look stupid and
The way that G-Dragon handle the press conferences. It's like he's basically showing the cops that they're stupid
And also just for context for anyone who doesn't follow kpop G-Dragon is probably one of the biggest name in the kpop
Industry, yeah, he was one of like the like the, people call him like the OGs.
Yeah, Gen 2.
So it's like the OG, you know,
still one of the biggest name in the country.
So like, his name associated with this is like,
like imagined like AALYS celebrity, like front line news.
Like it's crazy.
Now their investigation relied heavily on testimony
and there was zero evidence to back it up.
So what happened to G-Dragon was humiliating for the police.
So it's likely that they wanted to make sure
that Lee doesn't get away.
In Nami's 17 interrogations,
so Nami, the madam, would be interrogated 17 times
by the police, Lee's name was mentioned 260 times.
Nami would state confidently
that Lee did drugs in her house.
How did he administer the drugs?
Oh, I have a silver pipe in my house for smoking weed.
When the police searched her house, they can't find the pipe anywhere.
But it doesn't matter because as long as Nami is saying it happened, the police believe
it happened.
According to Nami, based off of no proof, no evidence, Lee would come over to her house,
smoke marijuana, and take ketamine
and take all these other drugs, like hard drugs.
I mean, it got to the point where Nami's third interrogation
by the police, she couldn't even pinpoint exactly
when Lee did the drugs allegedly.
So the police start helping her allegedly.
If Nami would list a date that didn't make sense,
the police would say something along the lines of,
well, on that day, that wouldn't have worked
because he had a so-and-so appearance,
like he was doing a press tour. So that couldn't have been then. It's most likely more so around
these dates, right? Or another time they told Nami, well Lee was on a business trip to the US
from August 29th to September 7th. So tell us about the date that you guys did drugs between
August 19th and August 29th. If I didn't know any better, I would think they're feeding her these dates.
Ultimately, Nami was unable to provide the police
with a set time, date, or location of lead doing drugs.
It's like they just happened in a void.
How can you be a witness testimony
when you don't remember the location, time, or date
where anything happened?
Yeah, that's not evidence, right?
Yeah, that's not, that's, even if you remember, that's circumstant happened. Yeah, that's not evidence, right? Yeah, that's not, that's,
even if you remember, that's circumstantial. Yeah. It's just like, you could say whatever
you want, honestly. Yeah, you had a dream. Yeah. October 24th, 2023, the police stated that Lee
was under suspicion of inhaling and administering marijuana and other types of drugs several times.
They released this to the public.
So what are the public thinking? They're not thinking, oh, I bet Nami doesn't even know
a set time location and date where this happened.
They're thinking, oh, he probably,
they got some stuff against him.
Yeah, because the police released that, right?
Yeah, yeah.
But they're not gonna bring him in for questioning.
This is all before they even talk to Lee
and get his side of the story.
They announced this and they state that their plan
is to secure the cell phone data
and conduct forensic work
before they actually summon Lee for an interrogation.
Apparently when you cancel someone in Korea,
they call it N sending someone to hell, like sending them off. It's like they're standing on the edge of a cliff
and it's just the black abyss
and then someone just pushes them.
You're just sending them off.
Oh, God.
Lee's agency, Ho-du and You Entertainment,
released a statement soon after the news broke.
They stated, and this has been edited for length,
but first, we would like to deeply apologize
for causing any concern through the reports
about Lee Seong-gyun.
We are currently verifying the exact facts regarding the allegations raised against the
actor Lee.
We intend to faithfully participate in any future investigations, including submitting
cell phones for analysis.
We have not yet been contacted by the police.
However, actor Lee has received continuous blackmail threats from an unnamed woman, Miss
A, a person related to the incident.
Lee has filed a complaint with the investigative agency.
We will inform you of future progress in this regard through our legal representative.
We ask for your generous understanding."
Even though Lee and his agency do respond rather quickly, they even state that Lee is
being blackmailed by someone involved in all of this.
The general public did not care.
The statement just wasn't good enough.
People compared Lee's statement to G-Dragons and they just fully ripped it to shreds. They did not like the fact that Lee's agency did
not comment directly that Lee never took the drugs and that he never went to the room
salons. The public felt like a non-denial was basically admittance that he did all those
things. Some comments at the time read, so who threatened you into taking drugs? Who
asked you to provide an excuse to blackmail you? What kind of joke is that?
You irresponsibly say, oh, I want to enjoy the pleasure of the moment and now you regret
it?
Another comment reads, this statement is the worst.
I use drugs now and being threatened.
Are you really that pitiful?
Another one is just, ugh, the end of a messy life, huh?
To make matters worse, two very well-known names in the drug world in South Korea were
linked to this case.
Hwang Hana, who has been in prison like three times prior to this for drug usage, Hana's
a nepo baby.
Her grandfather founded Namyang Dairy Company, which is the country's third largest dairy
company that specializes in like yakuratu, you know, the probiotic yogurt drinks.
Hana's dad is allegedly worth at least over $300 million.
Hannah's a very interesting character.
Her whole family is.
Her family was in hot water
when the dairy company made claims
that their yogurt could prevent COVID.
Yeah, we talked about her before, right?
Yeah.
Like the dairy princess.
And her fiance mysteriously passed.
Oh, right.
Yes, she was involved in a very mysterious death.
And like there's just a lot going on,
but Hannah is notorious for getting caught with drugs,
going to prison, coming out,
and then being like, I'm never gonna do it again.
And then getting caught with drugs.
And I would say that as of today,
any association with Hannah probably isn't the best look.
And Han Seo-hee was also interrogated.
Han Seo-hee was associated with multiple
K-pop idol drug scandals, like I said,
most notably Top from Big Bang.
She was also involved in YG, like the YG of YG's trial.
I mean, there's a lot going on.
She's basically known by netizens
as the villain of the K-pop world.
That's how people describe her.
I mean, let me know if you guys want us to look into her.
Perhaps not for this channel, but you know. And just like Hannah, any association with Han Seo-hee
typically not great. Netizens are commenting, there's a saying, birds of a feather flock
together. Another one reads, they live a careless life, the same kind of people hang out with
one another. Now the public is spinning together this story of how they're all connected and creating
some sort of friendly drug ring together.
Lee's lawyer came out to say, the third generation TEBAR and the aspiring entertainer are known
to be subject to an internal investigation with Lee.
But Lee does not know them, and the suspicion that Lee hung out with them at an entertainment
establishment and took drugs is not true.
We cannot reveal more at this time, but we will talk with the investigative agency about the allegations and cooperate well with the
investigation. But nobody cared. Netizens commented on the case. His image has gone down the
drain. I'm just laughing thinking about how much he tried to cover up his image so far.
With this, Lee had to drop out of a TV series that he was working on called No Way Out,
which there's a lot going on here, but
the series name is No Way Out, and in it a really scary criminal is freed. Lee plays a police officer
that has to protect citizens from the criminal, but also keep the criminals safe from the bounty
hunters that are after him. A lot of netizens saw the irony, they said, and demanded Lee be taken
off the project because they could not see him as a police officer.
Some netizens commented,
in the future when producing large-scale movies, the main characters should undergo drug tests before proceeding.
If you're honest, there's no reason you should say no to a drug test.
But if you're not and you can't get tested, you should become a drug suspect for the police.
Because of Lee's case, investors are losing millions.
There are even conversations about banning celebrities from being on air if they ever have a drug scandal or investigation.
Meaning any show or movie that they previously worked on would not be able to air during
their scandal, or perhaps even after.
They would be banned from ever coming back to their careers.
Which the logic of that is insane.
People who commit acts of violence or other crimes while under the influence is another
thing. But people who are just caught using drugs,
I've never met someone who is dependent on drugs that wasn't hurting a lot inside.
So, great idea. Let's just make sure that these people don't have jobs to come back to.
That's perfect, because that should really teach them a lesson to not do drugs.
Meanwhile, Cho Doo-soon can open up a coffee shop
in the mountains if he wants to and live next to playgrounds
and be in the same town as his victim.
That's insane, man.
Like, make it make sense.
October 28th, 2023, Lee goes in for his first interrogation.
When he leaves the police station, the press and the public are waiting for him.
As he addresses the media, he gives them a deep bow as a show
of deep apology, and he bursts into tears.
And he apologizes for causing such an inconvenience
for everyone, but he does deny taking any drugs.
He apologizes to his family and says,
I apologize to them as they are suffering and going
through very hard times.
He continues, and above all, I would
like to bow down once again to everyone who has trusted and supported me so far. After his first interrogation,
Lee's urine test came back negative for drugs. The police would call in Lee to do
another drug test. This time, instead of a urine test, they wanted to take a hundred
strands of his hair. They tested every section of every strand of the 100 hairs and the results came
back negative. It's a very thorough test. It stated that Lee did not use drugs for approximately
8 to 10 months. This isn't like October, November. Remember the timeline? The police
are like August, right? You guys did drugs in August. It would most definitely show up
in his hair test. I mean sure he could maybe,
you could argue maybe he did drugs 11 months ago, two years ago, but that's not evidence.
He took the test in November and just going off Nami's testimony, she stated they did drugs in
August. It would have absolutely shown up on the drug test. Yeah, so she's lying. Yes. So this should
be over. Yeah. And the police, honestly, I feel like they could come out and say she lied.
And we fucked up. Yeah. So let's move on. My apologies.
Let's move it. Keep it moving.
The authorities wanted more drug tests from Lee.
They took his leg hair and his armpit hair to be tested.
His leg hair came back untestable, which it just means that a lot of Asians
don't have really thick
hair follicles on their legs.
So there's not a lot to test for the drugs.
It's just too thin of hair.
But the way that it was worded in the press made it seem like, ooh, the results are iffy.
Like they couldn't determine.
It was less of like, oh yeah, it's, you know, because his hair wasn't enough.
Or some people ran with it and said, maybe he like thinned out the hair on his legs.
Maybe he shaved his legs.
His armpit hair was thick enough
and the results would come back negative.
The same day Lee's test results all came back negative
and the results would be publicized to the public.
I mean, this is a huge day.
This is the day that he's been waiting for it
because he's proved himself.
He's innocent.
He can look the public in the eye.
He can be just like G-Dragon and take his career back.
I mean, he's traumatized.
There's going to be so many emotional scars.
He will never get back this type of everything that's happened to him, but he can get his
life back together.
But none of the media outlets really reported on the negative drug test.
The press up until this point had been so all over this case that if Lee so much as
breathed there'd be like a hundred new articles on it, suddenly they're not intrigued by the
negative drug test results.
They're too busy talking about his newly leaked phone conversation.
The same day his hair test results came back negative, the press did not report on it.
They were writing about a KBS released phone call, a leaked call of
a recording of Lee and the madam of the room salon, Nami, where Lee can be heard telling
her, I like you a lot too. You know that right? And she responds, I don't know, since you
never express it. His negative drug results were made public, but who cares about drugs
when you have an A list married actor confessing his love to a mistress who runs a salacious establishment and you have the audio to go along with it.
Side note, where do you think KBS got that audio?
Just wondering, I don't know.
But like who would have that audio?
Nami would have that audio.
Who's working with the police?
I'm just saying.
Oh, you're saying police leaked it?
A lot of netizens believe that police were involved in leaking a lot of information for this case,
like how they leaked Lee's name in the beginning of this
so that they could get a lot of publicity
and that they could make this a big blown thing
and get pats on the back once they solved it.
And now once the drug test come back negative,
maybe it's time to divert attention allegedly.
This is speculation online.
Everyone went crazy because you have to remember
that Lee's wife is also a famous person.
They brought up old interviews of his wife
talking about how she put her career on the back burner
so that he could go full force into his dreams.
She said, you go out and drink and do what you will.
She's like talking about her husband in an interview,
but I have to focus on the family
to the point where sometimes I even forget my name.
And this is on a show called Healing Camp
where a lot of celebrities will come
and they just try to be as vulnerable as possible.
So this is not her going on an interview
and be like, my husband,
like they're just trying to really dig deep
and have these hard conversations
with each other on this show.
She said, sometimes I even forget my own name.
I forget that I too was an actress.
That's why sometimes I think of my husband as my third son.
Other times she joke that she had four sons.
She has her husband Lee, their actual two sons,
and their boy dog.
Netizen's comments were flooded with,
isn't he embarrassed for his children?
What was he thinking doing drugs with a woman
at an adult establishment when he had his family
and his career?
Others hated the fact that his wife had ran for Miss Korea
and she was extremely well respected in the theater world
and incredibly skilled in her profession.
She was a dedicated wife and mother, yet he's still cheated?
A lot of people pointed out the fact that his wife
was slowly starting to get more involved in her career
now that her kids were getting older. they called it her second golden age.
She's always been active, but more so now.
But now with Lee's scandal, she's losing brand ambassadorships, people don't want to work
with her, even for casting.
People are so hesitant to work with her, even though she's not suspected of doing anything,
because it's just a lot of baggage that's going to be attached to the show now.
All the press is going to be about like, oh, she's starring in it.
What's her husband doing?
They also lost a lot of brand deals together because people really liked them as a family
unit.
So one of their biggest brand deals was with SK Telecom and to promote a kid-friendly educational
service on TV.
They were quickly dropped.
The controversy got so intense, the police sent both of their sons to the US to get away
from the media attention.
News reports started coming out that Lee was part of the top 1% of VIPs at a room salon.
But in reality, he was allegedly just a guest at a room salon club dubbed as a 1% club.
So like it's like a play on words like, oh, he's top 1% almost indicating he's there all the time.
What is he doing there all the time?
And again, I have nothing to say about the timing about all of this.
But if I did have something to say, I would probably say there are no such things as coincidences.
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Here we go. G-Dragon was accused of doing drugs based off of Nami's testimony.
He was paraded around in the media, dragged through the mud, he almost lost his career.
At one point he was facing over $38 million in penalty fees for breaking brand-ambass ownership
deals because of this scandal.
His life was about to be over.
The police were basically barking to the whole nation that G-Dragon was the bad guy and they're
gonna get him.
Then all of his drug tests come back negative.
The public start to question if maybe the investigation had been excessive.
The police feel like they've been caught with their fists in their mouths, so now with
Lee, they're even more desperate.
They have to do something to redeem their image.
And yet, even with all these negative
drug tests, Lee was called in for his third police questioning. And each time it was a press circus,
each time he had to stand in front of all these journalists that were actively digging up every
single bad thing that he did from his past and twisting it in just really gross ways,
he would have to apologize for something that he wasn't even proven guilty of doing yet.
really gross ways. He would have to apologize for something that he wasn't even proven guilty of doing yet. And December 23rd, 2023. So a few months ago, Lee walked into the police
station for his third questioning. He would not walk back out for 19 hours. He walked
in at 10am and would not walk out until 5am the next day. It's snowing outside, it's
freezing, he's wearing a black coat and a scarf, he bows to the press and the first thing he says are, first of all, I'm sincerely
sorry to have the reporters wait because it ended so late today with the investigation.
His statement to the press after his third and last interrogation was, I did my best
to cooperate today. Now I asked the police to carefully determine which side of the
statement is credible between me and the blackmailers.
Once again, I'm sorry to keep you guys all waiting this late.
I mean there's so much wrong with this.
In South Korea, you're not allowed to interrogate someone between 9pm to 6am to safeguard their
human rights.
But the police stated that they received consent from Lee, so they're fine.
The police argued, but he consented.
But like, I don't think he really had a choice here.
Yeah, can you imagine if you reject that?
Can you imagine that would be like career death instantly?
Yeah, yeah, but there's a reason that it's not advised that police conduct long investigations
It's stated on average people who falsely confessed to crimes that they did not commit were interrogated for around
16.9 hours before they admitted to that crime. That's typically the threshold.
Also, side note, but not really because this is so strange,
but they made him take mug shots every time he came in for an interrogation.
They also refused to let him use the underground parking lot when coming in.
Usually high-profile people are allowed because you don't want too much of a media circus
for the integrity of the investigation and for the safety of the parties involved.
But no, the police wanted it as public as possible.
They basically wanted him to have a perp walk.
And when the police were questioned, why 19 hours?
Like yeah, okay, so what he consented, but why 19?
You know what I hate?
I hate that they can just say police.
I wish there's like names like, okay,
this is the man in charge who made these decisions
because these are, you're talking about some very,
very, very life altering decisions
that you're making right now.
Like making someone park outside
versus parking underground.
Like you know what this is gonna do to someone.
Like imagine that's you.
Like what is that gonna impact you
and your families forever?
Yeah, I also feel like that is why a lot of the times
even big companies don't get canceled
for doing some of the most heinous stuff
because there's not a face, there's not a name.
They're like hidden behind this entity of a group of people
and it's just so vague.
Same with this case, it's like the police, right?
But these are some-
Someone's making the call.
Yeah, someone's sitting the call. Yeah.
Someone's sitting there like, I'm gonna get a promotion.
Yeah.
They did get a promotion.
Yeah.
The police stated the interrogation was gonna last so long because they were also investigating
his, his extortion claims.
It's not just because he's a drug suspect.
They're also trying to help him.
Duh.
But it was later uncovered that out of the 19 hours,
they only spent one and a half hours on his complaint
that he was being blackmailed.
After 19 hours of being interrogated,
Lee admitted he might have taken drugs,
but by complete accident, he stated,
there was a situation where he was having trouble sleeping
and Nami said that she had a sleeping pill
that she could let him have,
but she said, no, don't ingest it,
it's not gonna work quickly enough. It works better and faster if you snored it. So he stated
that she instructed him to snort it through a straw. He doesn't know if this was a drug or not.
He genuinely thought it was a sleeping pill. Now think about how strange this is.
19 hour interrogation. Lee isn't the clear at this point. He's got all negative drug tests so far, but suddenly after a 19 hour interrogation, even
though the science and the drug test state otherwise Lee is admitting to doing drugs,
at least in some capacity, almost immediately after the third interrogation, Lee's attorney
stated this was completely unjust and they demanded a lie detector test for Lee.
Now, this is not his attorney saying this, but netizens have kind of put this together.
First of all, we don't know if the snorting of a sleeping pill through a straw incident even
happened or if he was pressured to say that it happened by the police. So if Lee lied and was
pressured to say it, if that's the case, he's innocent. Second, even if it did happen, could it
have been just really sleeping pills that he snorted because Lee's drug test all came back clean.
So if that's the case, he's innocent. Third, Lee might have just been trying to be overly helpful with the police.
He might have felt like honesty is the best choice here and he assumed that if he was honest with
the police, they would help him find justice. Yeah, because there's no reason for him to confess
to anything right now. What exactly? Because he's in the clear, right? Which in that case,
he's innocent. Fourth, Lee told Which in that case, he's innocent.
Fourth, Lee told the truth.
He thought it was sleeping pills.
It turned out not to be.
If that's the case, how did it not show up on the drug test?
But also he's innocent because he was drugged.
Now fifth, if Lee didn't tell the truth, he knew that he snorted a recreational
drug, but he was trying to play it off.
That just doesn't make sense because his drug test came back negative.
Why would he ever tell the truth now if that's what really happened?
Like he's clear. Why would he screw himself over the last minute?
Yeah, like this is anybody who would bring cell will come to this conclusion.
Like this makes no sense for him.
Exactly. Like no sense.
And even if he said that and was not forced to say that, everything leads to he's innocent.
He's innocent.
Like I don't know what to say.
He's innocent.
His attorney stated, if Nami was telling the truth, the drug test should have come back
positive, but they came back negative.
Lee is finding himself in an extremely unfair situation.
A lie detector test should be conducted on both of them to verify who is speaking truthfully.
Allegedly the police officer interrogating Lee was calling Nami the blackmailer by her
first name, but in a very casual way, you would never really hear that in a professional
setting.
It just sounded too friendly, too casual in Korean verbiage, almost hinting at some sort
of friendliness or even report build with Nami.
But then there was blacklash.
The police just stated, we investigated fairly according to the law and principles.
So he gets released from his 19 hour interrogation
and 24 hours right after, before Lee's death,
two more phone calls were leaked.
So one between Nami, the middle blackmailer
and Lee's friend, Mr. Kim,
and the other between Nami and Lee.
Both phone calls take place
when Nami is trying to get $250,000.
Now the first phone call with Mr. Kim, the friend,
Nami's talking about how she thinks someone bugged her house
through her house plans.
And side note, I've heavily, heavily shortened these.
Nami just rambles like the whole conversation.
So Mr. Kim asks,
what do you mean they have a recording file on you?
I think they planted something in my house.
What?
I think they planted something in my house. By? I think they planted something in my house.
By the way, Lee has been in and out of my house a lot,
and I think the blackmailer knows way too much about the dates
and the information about my house.
About what?
Just personal conversations.
You know, I had a deep relationship with Lee.
Anyway, there were things like physical relationships with Lee, you know?
Yeah.
But I'm not really on the same team as the hacker,
and I'm fine as long as I get arrested.
Shouldn't we save Lee though? I want to die.
What do we do about this? What do the blackmailers want exactly? Money. How much? 250k.
Huh? 250k? I mean, there's no end to that though. Even if we pay for it anyway, it's just going to keep going.
No, no, no., I know this guy.
I don't care if I am poor, I'm gonna protect Lee.
Lee is okay.
There's nothing else.
Like, Lee didn't take drugs or anything.
No, Lee did drugs.
What?
Lee did drugs with me.
Who?
Oppa, Lee did drugs with me.
He did what with you?
He would be drunk and then he would come out of nowhere and he'd have nowhere to go and then, you did drugs with me? He did what with you? He would be drunk and then he would come out of nowhere
and he'd have nowhere to go
and then he'd wake up at my house
and I would try to get him up and wake up,
he wouldn't wake up,
he'd go sign some contract with his wife
and his manager came to my house
and his wife called me like 60 times,
he still didn't go home.
I don't know, okay?
I only met married men so I don't know them well
but I think Opa has not cheated before much.
That's why he likes to drink and he drinks and he doesn't know where to go wait
So what kind of meds did he take?
ketamine and
marijuana I have a pro athlete friend who is doing a doping test right now
It's very accurate
So I did one yesterday and I knew that there was a lot of cannabis in my body
But Leo Po is drunk and he asked me do you guys have meds do you
guys have drugs so I gave it to him out of curiosity yeah we met a little bit
deeper than you thought he often drinks at home and then doesn't have a place to
go so he would ask to come here and then he would keep asking for some drugs he'd
be like do you have drugs and then I would give him Viagra anyway I tried the
doping test and it's really accurate like you can even tell what kind of diet that you have.
Oh my god.
Look oppa, I can go to prison because it's my fault, but shouldn't we try to protect Lee?
Why should keep saying that?
Like so manipulative.
If someone is recording in your home right now, then that means you know them.
Hwang Hana, the milk table.
But I never did drugs with her.
I swear, but milk-chebel. But I never did drugs with her, I swear.
But somehow I got involved.
Listen, if we don't prepare the $250,000 by Wednesday,
they're gonna leak it to the media.
So you're saying that your drug tests come back
and there's no drugs in your system?
No, no drugs in my system.
Then Lee would not have drugs in his system.
It's in his hair.
Oh, it's in his hair.
But you said you didn't have any though. I bleached my hair seven times and I also didn't do drugs that many times
The conversation is just really bizarre some netizens feel like it confirms Lee wasn't doing drugs
Because even his close friend Mr. Kim seems surprised at the mention that he does drugs and Nami keeps telling him that he's doing drugs
Like it's just kind of weird. It's like she's trying to gaslight him into thinking that Lee does drugs.
Now the second phone conversation
that was leaked between Lee and Nami,
he's at golf practice and Nami's just acting
incredibly stressed.
Lee already knows about the blackmailer
and the hacking and all of that,
but she's just trying to talk in circles
and get more money out of him.
She wants $250,000.
And at a lot of parts in the conversation,
Lee sounds like he's really doubting
her whole story about being hacked.
She says she's like hacked multiple times,
her phone was robbed, it's just a lot.
And now here's what's interesting.
In this phone conversation with Lee,
she doesn't bring up the fact that they did drugs.
She's not like, remember, you would come over
when you're drunk and then you'd be like, do you have pills?
She would just cryptically say things like, you did something with me because you were
drunk.
And Lee sounds confused.
She's like, what?
She keeps mentioning and hinting at the hacker and like they need the money because there
might be drugs in this.
Like just hinting at it.
Never really says it.
Yeah.
See, that's like she trying to gas like him.
Yeah. Like almost like you don't remember it because you were drunk.
Nami just spends the whole conversation trying to convince him to give her the 250k for the
blackmailer.
And side note, another thing that makes this whole thing so much more sad is one text message
sent by Nami to Lee.
A lot of netizens think that this proves that he didn't do drugs.
This is when she's trying to convince him to give her the blackmail money.
She texts him,
Opa, just tell me yes or no for the money.
It's so simple.
I get you're tired,
but right now my life is paralyzing.
I didn't know that people around me that were near me
were so evil.
When that fucker mentioned your name,
my heart started racing.
Even the simple fact that you will know
that I did drugs is so embarrassing.
So I just wanted to hide it.
That's why I just told you to just leave.
She's saying that you will be embarrassed
at me doing drugs.
Yeah, like I would be so embarrassed
if you found out that I did drugs.
Yeah, that means he probably doesn't like drugs.
Yeah, he probably doesn't do drugs.
Otherwise you'd be like, you do drugs?
That's fun, me too.
Exactly.
It's very interesting.
Now these phone calls were released
just a day before Lee's death,
and I felt like it was more favorable to him.
It proved that he was being blackmailed.
Other than the conversation with Mr. Kim,
which is just again,
Nami talking about Lee doing drugs,
providing zero evidence.
There's nothing, like really nothing.
But the media, the public, they did not care.
They used these phone call leaks
to further their narrative
that Lee was absolutely guilty
of drugs.
Maybe they're talking about drug tests, so maybe he found a way to hack the drug test.
One comment reads, one of the reasons why drugs are so rampant in our country is because
the punishment is weak.
Similar to China, we should impose life imprisonment or the death penalty.
The same day the phone calls were released, 24 hours before Lee's death,
the government announced a whole group of promotions
for police officers,
including some investigators working directly on Lee's case.
They were being promoted.
December 27th, 2023, around 10, 12 a.m.
Lee's manager went to stop by his place
because he hasn't been able to get in contact
with Lee all night.
He was starting to get nervous.
He let himself in and saw that Lee was not there.
There was just a letter that resembled a will left in the house.
The letter allegedly states something along the lines of, I'm sorry, there's nothing
we can do, there's no other way.
He immediately calls the police and they find Lee Seong-gyun dead in his car.
Parked near Woryong Park, there was a coal briquette found in the passenger seat.
He died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
He was gone.
It was stated by netizens,
Lee Sung-kyun was not just a suspect in the drug case,
but a victim in the extortion case.
However, for 71 days, he was treated as a criminal.
There's a saying in Korea that is, when I do it, it's romance. When you do it, it as a criminal. There's a saying in Korea that is,
when I do it, it's romance.
When you do it, it's a sin.
It usually applies for cheating.
When you are the cheater, you romanticize it.
You have all these reasonings behind why you did it,
but then when someone else does it, you read about it on the news.
Or you hear your neighbor cheat it, or your wife cheats.
They're despicable sinners, and they deserve every bad, horrendous consequence that comes their way.
And again, I'm not defending cheating, but cheating is maybe the only thing that we can
assume Lee did and even that, we don't know the pure extent of that.
And while it's bad, does he really need to die because of it?
While it's bad, does he really need to lose his career because of it?
It's a conversation for him and his family and for them to decide how to proceed.
It's sad, it might make him lose fans because they thought
he's a great family man and this shatters their vision of him, but that's like the full extent.
That's like as bad as it should get. But no, he was never proven guilty of anything.
Even his death was leaked to the press. 13 minutes before Cho Sun TV exclusively reported
the news at 11am, a post went up on an online to that post and asking, why are there so many leaks in this investigation?
Who put this post up?
Netizen said,
I'm glad this is just clickbait.
I'm glad this is just clickbait.
I'm glad this is just clickbait.
I'm glad this is just clickbait. The official news came out 13 minutes later. Netizen started going back to that post and asking, why are there so many leaks in this investigation?
Who put this post up?
Lee was actually known for his voice.
He didn't really like it apparently much in the beginning.
Some people describe it as being stuffy.
Other people, so I asked my mom and my mom says it's like
very dongle dongle, which is like very round.
It almost is like a round it almost is like
a round sound that rolls around in a cave. Other describe it to be very thick like honey but it's kind of his charisma when he acts but it's also the reason why his acting is so
good. It's harder for him to show a very strong wide range of emotions clearly through his voice
he's able to do it so well,
it just takes so much more effort.
It's kind of incredible how many characters
he's fit his voice into and his life into.
He's played such a diverse role of characters
throughout his career.
People said, he's got this unique talent.
He just is able to dial in his aura so subtly.
It's like he can control how much of him is actually in this
character and how much isn't, how much he's pulling from himself and it's it's like the perfect amount
each time. One director said, I think the job of an actor is to store up everything he has
experienced and feel with his whole body and bring it out in front of the camera and dedicate your
life to it. And Lee did that with every performance.
But it took a while for audiences to warm up to him.
And once they did, I mean, it just kind of exploded.
I think for like seven years though,
nobody knew who this guy was.
He worked so hard.
He became an A-list actor.
And even before that, before he was well-off,
before he was making good money,
a lot of directors just remember how dedicated he was.
There was one director who signed Lee
for the role of the movie, and the director's like,
I'm just letting you know now, this budget is not existent.
So when we have a scene with multi-camera angles
where you need five different angles in one shot,
I only have one camera.
So you're gonna have to sit there and read it
the same scene while I move around
into the five different angles, okay?'s like that's fine like he never complained he was described
as being the A-list actor even when he made it to show up to these tiny events that his friends
were hosting while all of his peers are like well I can't go because the appearance fee and this and
that he would just show up for free and even before before he made it, before he had money, he would get all of his junior actors
and co-stars together and he would buy all their meals.
He would also, this is when he barely has a job.
Like he's got, maybe he booked one role, he doesn't have the next one lined up, but
he would bring one of his junior friends over, just started, and he would go to the director.
Director, I'm telling you, this guy,
you gotta book him for your next movie.
Give him a chance, please.
Like, he's so, he's trying to give his friends roles
when he hasn't even secured a role for himself.
One director called him a treasure trove of actors,
because every day he would pitch you
a new up-and-coming actor that didn't have a chance,
and he'd be like, I'm telling you, this is the one.
And then he met his wife.
We didn't really meet her.
He saw her in a movie and then he asked a friend of his to be like, please, can you
just let me meet her in person one time?
You guys are in the same agency.
That's it.
Just once.
So they meet and they talk for 15 minutes and he had to go because he had to go film
and he begged her for her number.
And ever since then, I mean, I would say in hindsight,
watching interviews of the couple,
it doesn't feel like they have the perfect relationship,
but it does seem like they have a lot of love
and adoration for each other,
but almost a lot of almost even fun.
In an interview, when Lee's wife was asked
about what Lee likes the most, she said, ah, that's so easy.
He loves, ta-da-da, like you did good.
I'm so proud of you.
You're doing good.
Like, wow, that's crazy.
You did good.
He loves that.
She explains, and she's talking to Lee in this interview.
You always say that you're not enough and that it's all luck or you were just picked
or that the universe lined up. But no, I that it's all luck or you were just picked or that, the universe lined up.
But no, I think it's just talent.
In another part of the interview, his wife tells him,
I love you, so stop trying to verify and test my love.
And he just starts bust out laughing.
And then she goes on to rant about him using 20 pots
every time he makes a single meal.
She says, just because you played a chef one time
on a show does not mean you're a chef. The food's not even good and you use 20 pots. Okay. The two dated for seven years
before getting married and having two sons. And Lee talked about the birth of his first son and he
said it was so emotional. He said when he was born, it was such an emotional moment. And then out of
nowhere, the nurse asks me to sing. And I'm like, what?
I'm crying.
I start singing and then I just start sobbing.
And there's just so many times you can see how much he loves his kids.
There was one Friday show that he was on where he would travel through Europe on a train
with a bunch of other celebrities and he would periodically call his family and show them
the scenery.
But he's such a dad when he does it.
Like you would never think that this guy was on stage
to win an Academy Award.
He doesn't know how to flip.
He's there in like basketball shorts, hoodies,
and flip flops.
He's trying to show his sons where he's sleeping
on the train, but he doesn't know how to flip the camera
over, so he's just like, like trying to get the angle
nonstop.
He's just awkwardly trying to show them.
Afterwards, his wife is like,
why do you look like that?
Why's your face so bloated?
He's like, yeah, I'm tired.
And then she'd be like, okay, show me the train.
Show the kids the train.
Then you go back to showing the train.
December 29th, 2023, just two days after his death,
his family held a private funeral.
Lee's two sons flew back into Korea and it is Korean tradition that your loved one
or your family member has to carry your funeral photo, a portrait of you, in front of you
as your loved ones carry your coffin to the hearse, to the car.
My dad did this when my grandfather passed away, and he said it was probably the heaviest
thing that he's ever carried.
But my dad was a full grown man when his dad passed. Both of Lee's sons were really young, 14 and 12.
There were also post-it notes left behind by fans at the funeral and they read,
Rest Comfortably Now and Goodbye My Adjashi, I Love You Forever.
and goodbye my adjushi, i love you forever.
at the sbs drama awards that was hosted that very night of his funeral
everyone came but netizen said there was a shift in the air. there was almost this contained controlled anger running through everyone there.
anger and sadness.
hua za had rehearsed two of her new biggest songs chili and i love my body
but in a single day she changed her entire set and outfit and she sang her song LMM, dedicated to Lee. The song is about breaking free and trying to face adversity and still have hope.
The lyrics go,
like the world is gonna end, the sun sets into the long darkness, it feels like we're gonna get thrown away.
Even if we try to make more, we're going to get thrown away.
Even if we try to make more, we're still just hanging around the same place.
But flowers bloom even in the falling rain.
One of Lee's friends won an award and he had just spent the earlier part of the day at
Lee's funeral and now he's at this award ceremony and he went up on stage and he said,
today is the day that I sent my brother to heaven
and today is also the day that I won this award. So I dedicate this to you in heaven who has always been very serious about acting. Now it was very quick for the police to be able to track Estre as
the main blackmailer. Estre was not that tech savvy, she wasn't hidden well. I mean, she was arrested the day
after Lee's death on December 28th, 2023. And this part really angered a lot of netizens,
but she showed up to the police station in a big black puffer jacket hat, holding a two-year-old
baby in her arms. So you remember how Nami is called a flower serpent, like a flower snake?
SJ is known by the people around her as the grass snake.
Because she loved golf.
But she didn't even love golf.
She just loved going to golf clubs
and looking for rich men to blackmail.
Yeah, that's all she did.
She would go on these apps, find rich married men,
go to the golf course, find rich married men,
sleep with them, and then she would extort them for money.
More often than not, like I said, they're married. This is kind of her type for a reason. She would meet with them, sleep with them, and then she would extort them from money. More often than not, like I said, they're married.
This is kind of her type, for a reason.
She would meet with them, sleep with them, and then say,
Oopa, I'm pregnant.
So just imagine her calling up like 10 guys allegedly to state,
I'm pregnant and it's your child, but I'm reasonable.
I don't want a child, I don't want to break up your marriage,
so let's terminate.
But I need money to do that.
The men would happily hand over the money,
but a few days later, they would get another phone call.
SJ sounds emotional, she sounds scared.
They said I have a condition that makes the termination
process so much more complicated.
They say it's gonna cost a lot more.
How much more?
About $8,000 more.
The men typically already came this far.
There's no going back, so they would send her the money.
And usually, this is where her scam would end.
Until January 2023, she actually ends up having a baby.
She's actually pregnant.
So she decides to expand her scam.
She went from, oh no I'm pregnant, send me money to terminate.
Oh no, they said I have a rare condition so it's gonna cost a lot more to, oh well, oopsie.
They actually told me my condition is uterine fibroid cancer so I will die if I don't have
the baby. Anyway, I gave birth and die if I don't have the baby.
Anyway, I gave birth and it's yours.
It's your baby, so pay me child support.
At one point she was collecting child support for five different men, for one child.
A child that she didn't even want to take care of, it's alleged that SJ would get so
excited to party that she would just drop her baby off at random people's houses and
leave.
She would not come back for days to get that baby. She was just so bizarre. Like everything about this was bizarre.
And a lot of netizens felt like the craziest aspect about this case in terms of SJ was,
I mean, all of this was for a Porsche. Not really, but kind of. She really wanted a Porsche Taycan,
Taycan. Yeah, SJ wanted to scam people and blackmail Nami
so that she could just drive nice cars.
It's not like she was in desperate need of money to survive.
SJ's dad is actually quite wealthy.
He owns a big, wild JinSeng distribution business
and in a lot of Asian countries,
JinSeng can be upwards of like $1,500 a pound
during high seasons.
He bought her the apartment that she lives in.
He bought her a luxury SUV to drive. He told her the apartment that she lives in. He bought her a luxury SUV to drive
He told her these are your necessities anything outside of that you're gonna have to earn cuz you're in your late 20s
And it'd be so easy
He even offered her a job at his business where she could get paid $10,000 a month if she worked hard
It was not enough for her
It's likely that SJ brought the baby into the police station to get sympathy from the press and the police
It kind of backfired It's likely that SJ brought the baby into the police station to get sympathy from the press and the police.
It kind of backfired, she ends up getting charged on child abuse on top of her fraud
and blackmail charges.
And yeah, in addition, a plastic surgeon named Dr. L was also arrested for suspicion of supplying
Nami and all these other people at the bar, or the salon, with drugs.
The most infuriating part of all of this is that SJ and Nami's identities were being
protected by the police.
They were actually released by YouTubers.
Which is very complicated because on one hand, I don't know if YouTubers should be the ones
releasing people's personal information like that because, what if they get it wrong?
Who are they to make that decision, I guess?
But at the same time, why do these people have the privilege of hiding their faces?
Like if nobody is innocent until proven guilty,
then nobody is innocent until proven guilty across the board.
And again, another infuriating thing is Nami,
even the madam of the room salon
had a lot of luxury items.
She had bags that were worth like $20,000 to $30,000 a bag.
She had a Cartier Benoit watch,
like very expensive things.
And again, nothing excuses blackmail,
but these women, they didn't even need money to put food on the table or feed their kids
They did it for luxury items a
Professor of criminal law said about the investigation the interrogation should have stopped at the second drug test
They both resulted in negatives however because of the media and precedence and the police felt pressured to find a criminal
Maybe they felt like they had to keep trying
It's like they were forced onto a train
that they couldn't stop.
But the police disagree.
The day after Lee's death,
the International Police Agency held a press conference
where the police commissioner general,
one of the highest ranks said,
anyway, it's a really unfortunate choice.
And I personally really like Lee.
He's talking about the choice being Lee's,
not the choice that the police is, police please.
Really what? Unfortunate choice. And I personally really liked Lee, He's talking about the choice being Lee's not the choice that the police is police really what unfortunate choice
And I personally really liked Lee, but I don't agree with this as you know
Did the police investigation go wrong?
It would be difficult for us to handle such an investigation if we continue to conduct it behind closed doors
Don't you guys want to know the truth? Do you tolerate it when we investigate it with a private interrogation?
So he's throwing the blame back at the public and the press,
stating they would have been upset
if they kept the investigation quiet.
What?
The CEO of the Korean Film Producers Union said,
the police commissioner basically just said,
what?
You guys wanted this.
Why are you doing this to me and getting mad
when you're accomplices in all of this?
The police general continued,
I cannot agree with the allegations
of a time-consuming investigation.
The period of investigation into Mr. Lee is the time it normally takes to conduct a drug
investigation. And unlike G-Dragon, who is cleared of charges, we decided that further
investigation was necessary, so we summoned him once more. To the very end, it seems like they
will take zero responsibility. One netizen wrote, the Korean police never really cared about the
extortion case because they thought they were going to bag a high-profile celeb on drugs.
Two high-profile celebs actually. Neither of whom actually took any drugs.
It seems like they're only interested now because they need to have something to show for this pathetically inept investigation if you couldn't even call it that.
Another comment said,
I still don't understand at all why they took her word for it and persisted in trying to get Lee to be tested for drugs when it was clear many weeks ago that she was lying.
Why did they turn to bullying him?
A 19 hour interrogation that even his lawyer came out and said was confrontational.
It must have been horrific for his lawyer to say that.
And to demand a polygraph test, he knew he wasn't going to be believed by anyone.
Then the media came out with this sleeping pill straw story.
The police and the media conspired to set up a lynch mob
and netizens delivered.
Police corruption at its finest.
That's what the comment reads.
For Korean celebrities, even being questioned
and cooperating with the police,
which are typically seen as traits of a good civilian,
someone who is willing to talk to the police
and let them investigate,
they get treated like criminals instead.
It just ruins their reputation
regardless of if they actually committed a crime or not.
My dad said, it actually went so beyond that.
I was talking to my parents about it.
And my dad was saying,
the clips of him being brought in to be questioned
were played over and over and over again
on all the news networks.
Non-stop.
My dad's a huge news watcher.
Just non-stop.
No news would develop and they would just play that clip over and over and over and over and over again.
Every day. Non-stop. He wasn't even guilty and he was being paraded around like some sort of criminal, like a circus criminal.
Even Samuel, the guy that reported Nami to the police alongside SJ, said he regretted getting the police involved.
He thought, first of all, I didn't even know celebrities were involved.
I mean, involved, quote, involved.
He thought he was just reporting Nami, and he said that he was so shocked because the
person who did so many drugs and spread drugs to others is sitting right there, but they're
like going after celebrities who didn't do anything.
They're just bombarding them.
It's like the criminal is sitting right in front of you.
What are you talking about?
One that is instated, someone who had a long life ahead of them died
and that blood is on a lot of people's hands.
The blackmailers, the police, the press, and us, the public.
Who do you believe is the most at fault?
The two women that blackmailed him and lit the torch,
or the police that grabbed that torch from them
and lit Lee's house on fire,
or the press that made sure
that the whole world saw Lee's burning house every second of every day
Or the netizens that came to throw gasoline into the house from outside
and a big trigger point was the timing of all the leaked phone calls being released the leaked phone call where he tells his mistress
He likes her. I mean the timing of that to overshadow his negative test results
It's just really bizarre and also what was the purpose?
It's a private conversation between two parties,
which yeah, it's not the best look for him,
but it's not illegal.
So why is that worthy of a leak?
Why is that more newsworthy?
Netizens have stated at the very, very least,
this is personality murder, reputation murder.
One netizen asked,
is Korea one of those hyper anti-drug countries?
Is that why?
And someone responded, yeah, but don't worry,
they make up for it by being the country
with the highest alcohol consumption in the world.
G-Dragon posted a black screen
with a white chrysanthemum on the day of Lee's funeral.
He did not explicitly state why,
but it's widely known in Korea
that white chrysanthemums are reserved
for mourning and grief.
One that is incommented, regardless of what you think of G-Dragon, G-Dragon can relate
with Lee.
I mean, he was left alone by the company that helped raise him to the top, silence amongst
industry friends, police pushing a hidden agenda, YouTubers, TikTokers, all going nuts,
analyzing his speech patterns, his walks, his body language, preparing him up as some
sort of grand lamb sacrifice
alongside poor Lee Sung-kyun.
And worst of all, they'll do it again.
Tell someone else sooner or later.
In one of Lee's most iconic shows that he was in,
it's called My Mister.
There's a famous line in the ending scene
where Lee goes,
"'Chi-an, are you at peace now?
"'What are your thoughts on this case?
Let me know in the comments.
I will see you guys on Sunday for the next episode.
Stay safe. Bye.