Actress Hwang Jung-eum, who was sentenced to a suspended prison term in the first trial for embezzlement, has given up her appeal.
According to the legal community on the 4th, Hwang Jung-eum, who was indicted for violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes (embezzlement) and was sentenced to 2 years in prison with a 4-year suspension in the first trial on the 25th of last month, and the prosecution handling the case did not submit an appeal to the Jeju District Court.
In criminal cases, an appeal must be filed within 7 days from the date of the verdict if one does not agree with the ruling.
Hwang Jung-eum is accused of embezzling over 4.2 billion won from Hunminjeongeum Entertainment around 2022.
Hunminjeongeum Entertainment is a family corporation where Hwang Jung-eum owns 100% of the shares, and she was the only artist affiliated with the agency.
It has been determined that Hwang Jung-eum invested 4.2 billion won of the embezzled money in cryptocurrency, while the rest was used for credit card payments for property tax and local tax.
Hwang Jung-eum's side acknowledged all the charges during the trial and stated that she repaid the amount withdrawn in the form of advances from Hunminjeongeum Entertainment in two installments on May 30 and June 5.
The first trial court stated, “The amount of damage caused by the defendant's speculative investments and the purchase of expensive personal items is significant, and thus the culpability is not light,” but also noted, “The victim company is a one-person company of the defendant, so even if damages occur, they are limited to the defendant, and considering that the embezzled amount has been fully repaid and this is the defendant's first offense, we took these factors into account in sentencing.”
[Lee Da-gyeom, Star Today Reporter]
