SEOUL, March 4 (UPI) — South Korean police charged more than 10 suspects for drug-related offenses on Monday in connection to the shuttered Club Burning Sun, where staff may have routinely drugged women before the club’s VIP guests raped the victims in hotel rooms.
Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner Won Kyung-hwan told reporters Monday he plans to thoroughly and accurately investigate the case, and “severely punish” charged suspects, Yonhap reported.
On Monday, Seoul police said more than 10 people who have been charged are “under investigation.” Lee Moon-ho, the chief executive of Burning Sun, is among the people being interrogated by police.
Seoul police said several people are being investigated for drug use as well as for drug trafficking.
Burning Sun opened less than a year ago. According to photographs posted to Instagram or to its proprietary website, Burning Sun regularly attracted K-pop celebrities. Seungri, a former member of boy band Big Bang, is a co-owner. He has denied knowledge of the use of date rape drugs at his establishment.
Seungri has been cooperating with local law enforcement, but is coming under scrutiny after a local television station claimed the K-pop star used a messaging app to send instructions to staff.
The SBS report stated Seungri ordered the club to “prepare women” for investors from Taiwan, and also sent updates on the matter to the chief executive of Yuri Holdings, a key investor, in 2015. Seungri’s management agency, YG Entertainment, has said the report is “false.”
Police said Monday they are investigating other evidence connected to sexual assault, including surveillance footage of a secret VIP tunnel. Videos uploaded online by anonymous YouTube account holders show drugged women being dragged involuntarily to undisclosed locations through a tunnel.
