Jail for blackmailers who extorted from late South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun

A bar hostess and a former actress who extorted a total of 350 million won (S$328,000) from late South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun were sentenced to prison on Dec 19, local media reported.

The 30-year-old hostess surnamed Kim was sentenced by the Incheon District Court to 3½ years in prison for extortion, according to Korea JoongAng Daily.

The 29-year-old former actress surnamed Park, who extorted 50 million won, was jailed four years and two months under the same charge.  

Kim was

arrested and indicted in January for allegedly blackmailing Lee

and extorting 300 million won by falsely claiming her phone had been hacked. She demanded hush money from Lee, threatening to leak damaging information.

She had worked at a high-end bar in Gangnam that he reportedly frequented.

Investigators later discovered that the alleged hacker was Kim’s acquaintance, Park, who lived in the same apartment complex. Park had impersonated a hacker to extort money from Kim, claiming to have evidence of her drug use and association with Lee.

When Park failed to extract money from Kim, she blackmailed Lee, obtaining 50 million won.

The blackmail offences surfaced during Lee’s trial for alleged drug use in October 2023. Lee, best known for his role in the Oscar-winning film Parasite (2019),

died in an apparent suicide in December 2023,

while the investigation was under way.

According to the police, he

was found dead inside a car

parked near Waryong Park in northern Jongno-gu, Seoul, just days after the third round of police questioning over suspicions of illegal drug use. He had been claiming innocence and had requested a lie detector test.

During a trial in November 2024, prosecutors had requested seven-year prison sentences for Kim and Park.

The court said during sentencing: “Due to the hostess’ actions, the court saw that Lee must have suffered fear and severe mental pain... The former actress also directly threatened the victim, further aggravating his emotional suffering.

“While other factors may have been among the causes (of Lee’s emotional suffering), it is undeniable that the defendants’ actions of extortion contributed to his death.”

The court noted that its sentencing decisions for the two defendants took into account the fact that the bar hostess was threatened by the former actress, who needed to support a child.