South Korea’s Supreme Court upheld a three-year prison sentence for a YouTuber accused of blackmailing fellow creator Tzuyang, confirming a lower court ruling that found him guilty of extorting tens of millions of won by threatening to expose alleged personal scandals.
The highest court on Thursday dismissed an appeal by Lee Jun-hee, better known online as Gujeok, finalizing the prison term handed down by lower courts.
Lee was indicted in August 2024 on charges of extortion after prosecutors said he and another YouTuber threatened Park Jung-won, known as Tzuyang, in February 2023.
The pair allegedly told Park they had received tips about suspected tax evasion and details about her private life and warned they would publicize the allegations unless she paid them.
Authorities said Lee and his associate extracted about 55 million won ($37,000) from Park in exchange for keeping the claims private.
Lee was initially released on bail during the trial but was taken back into custody in February last year after a district court found him guilty on most charges and sentenced him to three years in prison. An appellate court upheld the sentence in September, and the Supreme Court ruled there were no errors in the lower courts’ judgment.
The accomplice, Jeon Guk-jin, who runs the YouTube channel Jujak Gambyeolsa, did not appeal a separate ruling that sentenced him to one year in prison, suspended for three years.
In the same case, a lawyer identified only by his surname Choi, who was charged with extorting additional money from Park under the pretext of “crisis management PR consulting,” received a final sentence of one year and six months in prison, suspended for two years. Choi had been sentenced to two years in prison in the first trial before the term was reduced to a suspended sentence on appeal.
Lee is also facing other legal cases linked to his online broadcasts. In January, a district court sentenced him to two years in prison and fined him 15 million won for defamation after finding he had spread false allegations about internet streamers on his YouTube channel between 2022 and 2024.
Separately, a civil court ruled in October that Lee must pay Park 75 million won in damages, while Jeon must pay 50 million won jointly with Lee.
In another case that has already been finalized, the Supreme Court last year upheld a 3 million won fine against Lee for mentioning another YouTuber’s past sex crime conviction on YouTube.
hnpark@heraldcorp.com
