① Seungri's taste for the high life earned him the nickname the Great Gatsby of Korea. But now the singer, a member of one of South Korea's biggest K-pop bands, is facing charges that he procured prostitutes for businessmen in some of Seoul's most fashionable nightclubs.
② The youngest member of Big Bang has announced he will retire to fight the charges and to spare his management agency, YG Entertainment, and fellow band members further embarrassment. The decision came after news of the scandal spread on social media recently.
③ Shares of YG slid by almost 16%, while other K-pop management companies also suffered losses.
④ Prostitution is illegal in South Korea. The charges against Seungri carry a prison sentence of up to three years. He has denied the allegations.
⑤ Police are also investigating claims that the Burning Sun nightclub, where Seungri was a public relations director, was involved in illegal drug use, sexual assaults and police corruption.
⑥ Seungri's arrest is the latest scandal to tarnish the reputation of K-pop, part of the globally successful Hallyu wave of Korean pop culture. The boy band BTS alone are worth about $3.5bn to the South Korean economy every year, according to the Hyundai Research Institute.