Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
After a judge almost bizarrely ruled that Yang Hyun Suk had done things worthy of criticism but acquitted him of witness tampering in connection with B.I’s drug case, an appellate court has voted 6-3 to overturn the acquittal and sentence the ex-CEO to a suspended sentence of a year* (with six months in prison should he violate during that period). Additionally, a former management associate of YG Entertainment was also a year of suspended sentence (with four months in prison).
*I have been writing “probation” for these types of sentences for years now, since that’s how it’s described by Korean media. However, that has led to a lot of confusion by even “serious” news sites when reporting on these things, and suspended sentence is probably the more accurate international way to view these punishments. As such, I’ll switch to that, unless that’s more confusing.
In effect, it’s a bit of a moral victory without any real bite to it, as the chances that he serves any prison time is minimal. That’s kind of wild to me considering what they’re saying he’s guilty of is threatening a witness to change testimony in connection to a coverup, but I guess because the witness is Han Seo Hee and YHS is YHS, he gets the scheduled slap on the wrist.
Note: It’s also funny/sad/worrying that out of all the major “news” sites covering this story, the most accurate translation I found was from Jasmine Media, which has less than 1000 followers on Twitter.
