The K-Drama actress and former pop star Hwang Jung-eum has walked free after her conviction for embezzling company funds to pay for personal crypto investments.
The South Korean media outlet Financial News reported that the Jeju District Court found her guilty of the charges, and delivered a suspended sentence of two years in prison.
The presiding judge also ordered her to serve four years of probation. Hwang embezzled around 4.2 billion won ($3 million) from Hunminjeongeum Entertainment in 2022.
K-Drama Star Hwang Jung-eum Apologizes for Wrongdoing
Hwang left the courtroom in tears after the sentencing. She told reporters outside the courtroom:
“I am sorry for all the problems that I have caused. I have never even been near a police station before. So I cried when I heard the court ruling.”
Hunminjeongeum was Hwang’s own one-person entertainment agency, a company she owned in its entirety.
The court heard that was found that Hwang Jung-eum invested most of the money she embezzled in cryptoassets.
Prosecutors also explained that she also used money from her agency’s accounts to pay her credit card bills, and settle her property tax and local tax bills.
The prosecution had asked the court to jail Hwang for three years during an August hearing. Prosecutors did not say whether they would seek to appeal the district court’s verdict.
Hwang’s legal team noted that she had admitted to all the charges and had repaid the funds in two installments, on May 30 and June 5 this year.
Judge Explains Reason for Suspending Sentence
The presiding judge said, in sentencing:
“The defendant’s guilt is not light because of the amount of damage she incurred in making speculative investments.”
However, the court explained its decision to suspend the sentence. The judge said that it had taken the fact that it was Hwang’s first offense into consideration.
The presiding judge also concluded that the damages were “only limited to the defendant,” and noted that she had “repaid the entire amount of money she had embezzled.”
Hwang, a former member of the South Korean pop group Sugar, made her small-screen breakthrough in the late 2000s when she appeared in the MBC sitcom High Kick Through The Roof.
She has also appeared in recent K-Dramas, including Kill Me, Heal Me (2015) and The Escape of the Seven (2023–2024).
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