The Incheon police said former Suwon Bluewings player Lee Kyung-hwan, 24, was found dead near his apartment in Incheon. 

The police believe that Lee jumped off the rooftop of the 15-story apartment building. 

The apartment security guard told the police that he heard a loud sound before finding Lee’s body in front of the apartment building at around 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Debuted in 2009, Lee played in 42 games for the Daejeon Citizens in the country’s top soccer league. 

He also played two games for Suwon Samsung Bluewings before being indicted last year on charges of receiving money in exchange for deliberately making mistakes in games while playing for Daejeon Citizen.

The Changwon District Court imposed a 7 million won ($6,150) fine and ordered 300 hours of community service. He also received a lifetime ban from the K-League after the court’s ruling in August 2011.

This is not the first time a soccer player involved in last year’s match-fixing scandal has been found dead. 

In May 2011, Incheon United goalkeeper Yoon Ki-won committed suicide in his car at a parking lot in southern Seoul after being implicated in the widening match-fixing scandal.

The match-fixing schemes in K-League were first revealed in May and the ensuing investigations led to the arrests and indictments of more than 40 active and former players.

Under a recently revised law on sports promotion, players who are involved in match-fixing may be jailed for up to five years or fined a maximum of 50 million won ($45,000), while those who set up illegal betting websites may be sentenced to up to seven years in prison or fined a maximum of 70 million won ($63,000). 


By Oh Kyu-wook
(596story@heraldcorp.com)