It started on January 28, 2019, when MBC Newsdesk published an article on an alleged staff member assault of a male patron at the renowned Gangnam nightclub Burning Sun in November 2018.

Investigations by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency quickly shifted to allegations of prostitution, drug trafficking, and police corruption at the club.

Several celebrities were directly impacted by the chatroom exposé, which resulted in their criminal prosecution and resignation from the entertainment business. One of the club's directors, Seungri of the boy band BigBang, later declared his resignation from the business on March 11, 2019, following allegations of sexual bribery.

Singer and entertainer Jung Joon-young resigned from the entertainment business on March 12, 2019, after confessing to secretly filming himself having sex with women and sharing the videos in KakaoTalk chatrooms without the women's knowledge or consent. Rape and spy cam allegations swiftly followed.

Following that, SBS funE said that illegal films from 2015 to 2016 had been found, along with chat sessions that Jung had with Seungri and other friends on the KakaoTalk app. Following claims that they participated in the chat rooms, Yong Jun-hyung of Highlight and Choi Jong-hoon of F.T. Island resigned from their employment on March 14. On March 15, the agency representing Lee Jong-hyun of CNBLUE acknowledged his involvement.

Criminal investigations sparked by the scandal were the subject of legal actions that extended into 2021. Despite the fact that a number of police officers received punishment for their conduct with the Burning Sun club, the two most well-known cases ended with trial acquittals. Co-CEO of Burning Sun Lee Sung-hyun testified that he had compensated a former policeman, Kang, to make up for an incident involving a minor who had attended a club. Kang's one-year prison term was reversed, nevertheless, due to a lack of proof.

In another well-known case, Yoon Gyu-geun, a top police official, was detained on suspicion of accepting bribes and arranging favours for the Burning Sun club and other parties. His first trial resulted in an innocent verdict. In addition to previous rulings, Lee Moon-ho, the club's co-CEO, received a year in prison for regular drug usage in Gangnam clubs, including ecstasy and ketamine.

MD Cho, one of the club's promoters, received a four-year and six-month term for drug use and smuggling. In addition to cases of sexual assault and rape, as well as the making of illicit videos while drug-using, police conducted drug sweeps at entertainment venues that resulted in hundreds of drug-related arrests. A significant portion of these arrests involved the usage of ecstasy and GHB, a chemical that is frequently used in dates. Yoo In-seok, a business associate of Seungri, was charged with embezzlement and given a suspended sentence of three years probation after admitting to supplying prostitution to prospective Japanese investors.

Yang Hyun-suk, the head of Seungri's entertainment agency, was forced to pay a fine along with three YG and YGX associates after they acknowledged to gambling and making illicit money transactions at Las Vegas casinos.

Media attention was drawn to the club's problem, which was made worse by Seungri's widespread appeal and potential commercial ties to the club. The "epidemic" of nonconsensual sex films of women being distributed online is known in Korea as "molka," and the accusations of sex crimes contributed to it. The controversy sparked a heated debate over how to handle it amongst different political groups.

A 29-year-old clubgoer named Kim Sang-kyo was allegedly assaulted at the Burning Sun nightclub on January 28, 2019, according to a report by MBC Newsdesk. Kim reported that on November 24, 2018, while he was staying at the Burning Sun, he was attacked by employees for trying to assist a woman who was being harassed sexually. Kim was booked on seven accusations, including criminal violence, indecent act, defamation, and obstruction of the execution of official duties, when the Yeoksam police arrived. Kim was identified as the attacker and taken into custody. He added that after being taken into custody, he was beaten by the police.

Kim published a petition on the Petitions to Blue House website in January 2019, describing how Burning Sun employees had assaulted him and how the police had mistreated him. She also claimed that staff members had drugged female patrons and that the club had a shady relationship with the district police. A recent online petition demanded that druggings that take place in clubs be looked at, along with the club scene as a whole.

In the initial phases, the controversy revolved around Kim's grievance against Burning Sun nightclub, encompassing any potential offences that might have transpired there and the names of those accountable. MBC Newsdesk's first report on the event involving Kim on January 28 featured two CCTV footages of the club's security videotape that were allegedly showing Kim's assault inside the establishment, and another that showed a woman being pulled down a corridor while allegedly under the influence of drugs.

Seungri's role and his connection to the club quickly gained attention from the media. Seungri was at the club on November 28 but departed before Kim's incident, according to a statement issued by Yang Hyun-suk, the head of his agency, YG Entertainment, on January 31. He added that Seungri's recent departure from the club as a senior director was brought on by his impending induction in the military. In an Instagram statement posted on February 2, Seungri finally addressed the controversy, saying he was not at the club when Kim was allegedly assaulted, that he only learnt about it later, that he was an executive director of the club, and that he had no involvement in its management or operations. He did, however, apologise for not accepting responsibility right away.

Seungri and Yoo were reportedly booked by SMPA on April 1st because to claims of misappropriation from the Monkey Museum club, which launched in 2016. Subsequent reports claimed that money from Yuri Holdings was utilised to cover legal costs related to a criminal prosecution involving a club employee. Seungri and Yoo were questioned again by SMPA on April 29. Yoo finally acknowledged that he had provided prostitutes to at least six Japanese investors at their Gangnam nightclub in December 2015, while Seungri continued to deny any involvement with prostitution. The story was headlined "Seung-ri's Business Partner Admits Pimping" in Chosun Ilbo. Paper trails of financial transactions, a wire transfer and credit card payment by Yoo and Seungri to YG Entertainment, and chat room discussions between the two parties and Jung regarding the arrangements were all possessed by SMPA. Additionally, SMPA had scheduled 17 prostitutes and pimps in connection with the occurrences. On May 2, after sixteen previous interrogations concerning his alleged provision of sexual services for investors, Seungri was called in for questioning about the alleged misappropriation of the Burning Sun club's money.

Seungri and Yoo appeared at hearings on May 14 on charges of embezzling company cash and arranging sexual services for foreign investors, coupled with a new charge that Seungri had paid for sexual services himself. On May 7, SMPA requested arrest warrants, to include pre-trial custody. At the Seoul Central District Court hearing, Seungri acknowledged that he had used illicit sex services, but he refuted all other accusations. He was then taken to a holding cell surrounded by ropes to wait for the ruling, which was made later in the evening. The court rejected both arrest warrants, citing "room for dispute" over the alleged embezzlement and stating that there was little chance of destroying the evidence.

Prosecutors indicted nine individuals on January 30, alleging offences connected to the Burning Sun case. These individuals included Yang Hyun-suk for gambling and violating the Foreign Exchange Transaction Act, Yoo In-seok for mediating prostitution and business embezzlement, and Seungri for mediating prostitution and violating the Foreign Exchange Transaction Act. All of the indictments were made without detention.

Two more people, Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon, who were already serving jail sentences following a rape trial in 2019, were charged with soliciting prostitutes and bribing a police officer during an incident involving drunk driving, respectively.

Prosecutors added a ninth accusation against Seungri on January 14, during the continuing military trial. The charge claimed that Seungri and Yoo had enlisted gang members to mediate a pub quarrel in December 2015. On July 1, witness evidence came to a close. Seungri denied all of the charges, with the exception of one that involved breaking the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act while playing poker in Las Vegas. The prosecution suggested a five-year sentence and fine for each of the counts.

"Despite reaping benefits from the crimes, he is shifting the responsibility on another person," a military prosecutor stated of Seungri. Given his terrible attitudes and beliefs about sex, he deserves a harsh punishment."

On May 20, Yoon Gyu-geun, the chief of police, was found partially guilty of encouraging the destruction of evidence and was given a fine but no jail sentence.

On August 19 and 25, respectively, Seungri and the military prosecution filed appeals. Based on Seungri's admission of guilt and "reflection" on all nine accusations, a military appeals court on January 27, 2022, cut his three-year prison term in half, to one year and six months, and assessed a lower fine. At the time, it was estimated that Seungri's military incarceration would expire in another thirteen months.

On May 26, 2022, the Supreme Court of Korea upheld this conviction; Seungri was therefore released from the military and transported to a civilian prison to carry out the balance of his sentence.

Reactions from K-pop fans were divided; some demanded that Seungri be kicked out of BigBang by YG Entertainment for damaging the group's reputation and using the group's fame to further his own business. Some even waited outside the agency's headquarters for an explanation. Some supporters, nevertheless, persisted in standing by him.

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