The father-in-law of singer and actor Lee Seung-gi has been sentenced to three years and six months in prison and taken into custody after being convicted at his first trial on charges of manipulating the stock prices of KOSDAQ-listed companies for illicit gains.
The 15th Criminal Division of the Seoul Southern District Court, presided over by Judge Noh Yoo-kyung, sentenced Lee, 59, to three years and six months in prison and a fine of 400 million won on September 29. The court also ordered him to forfeit approximately 125.5 million won. Lee, who had been standing trial while out on bail, was immediately taken into custody following the sentencing.
The court said, “The stock price manipulation in which the defendants participated is an act that harms the capital market by distorting the sound functioning of price formation, and the culpability is extremely serious. It is a typical crime that causes harm to numerous innocent investors and undermines investors’ willingness to invest.” The court added that Lee was highly blameworthy for participating in similar criminal activity again despite having a prior conviction for a similar offense.
Lee Seung-gi’s father-in-law was previously indicted in 2016 for allegedly making billions of won in illicit profits by artificially boosting the stock price of a company called Corebit through false disclosures of favorable developments, including an alleged investment by Hong Kong-based investors, during a capital increase. He was sentenced in the first trial in 2018 to four years in prison and a fine of 2.5 billion won. Although he was acquitted on appeal the following year, the Supreme Court overturned the acquittal and remanded the case in June 2025 for further proceedings on the basis that the lower court’s acquittal was erroneous.
Lee Seung-gi, who married actress Lee Da-in in 2023, announced in April 2025 that he would cut ties with his in-laws after it became known that his father-in-law had been indicted again for alleged unlawful conduct ahead of the retrial following the Supreme Court’s remand. At the time, he said through his agency, Big Planet Made, “The trust between our families has been damaged to a point where it is difficult to restore, and after much consideration, my wife and I have decided to cut ties with my in-laws. I deeply regret that I spoke without fully reviewing the issues surrounding my father-in-law last year. I believe that any unlawful conduct should be appropriately punished.”
Photo = Reporter Baek Seung-cheol
(SBS Entertainment News | Kang Kyung-youn)