Lee Mun-ho (32), former co-president of the club 'Burning Sun', was acquitted in an appeals court on charges of neglecting the club to hire minors as bodyguards.
The 2nd Criminal Appeal Division of the Seoul Central District Court today (16th) overturned the first trial sentenced to 6 months in prison and 1 year probation for Lee, who was accused of violating the Youth Protection Act, and acquitted.
Lee Seong-hyun, former co-CEO of Burning Sun, who was also indicted on the same charge, was acquitted, unlike the first trial, which sentenced a suspended sentence to imprisonment.
The judge said, "The defendants entrusted the club's bodyguard employment business to an outsourcing company, and the company's officials performed the work independently."
In addition, he pointed out, "There was no reason for the club to hire a youth bodyguard. The possibility that the defendants did not know that a youth bodyguard was hired cannot be ruled out."
Lee Mun-ho and Lee Seong-hyun were put on trial for hiring four teenagers as bodyguards at Burning Sun, which is classified as a facility harmful to youth, from March to October 2018.
They claimed that they did not know that they had hired a minor by entrusting the related work to an outsourcing company.
However, the first trial ruled that if you are the owner of a facility harmful to youth, you have an obligation to supervise and manage the outsourcing company so that it does not hire minors.
Lee Mun-ho was charged with administering drugs (violation of the Narcotics Control Act) more than 10 times at clubs in Gangnam, Seoul, etc. between 2018 and 2019, and was sentenced to one year in prison by the Supreme Court in January 2020.
In addition, a suspended sentence of imprisonment was sentenced in the first trial in February this year for issuing a false tax invoice worth hundreds of millions of won (violation of the Tax Offender Punishment Act).
(Photo = Provided by Yonhap News TV, Yonhap News)