A South Korean courtroom has sentenced a girl who blackmailed soccer star Son Heung-min to 4 years in jail.
The girl in her 20s and her confederate, a person in his 40s, had been discovered responsible of blackmailing the previous Tottenham captain by saying she was pregnant along with his baby.
The girl had approached Son someday final yr claiming she was carrying his baby, when in truth she didn’t know whether or not that was the case, a Seoul district courtroom heard, in keeping with native media.
She extorted $300 million received ($200,000; £153,000) from him and threatened to go public with the allegation if he didn’t comply.
The girl spent the cash on luxurious and designer items, AFP information company reported.
“[The woman] insists she acquired the cash as compensation and portrays herself as a sufferer,” prosecutors instructed the courtroom on Monday. “However her claims don’t absolutely match the info,” they mentioned, accusing her of planning the crime “totally”.
The girl’s confederate, who had threatened Son 15 occasions to get the cash, was handed a two-year jail time period for tried blackmail.
Once they demanded more cash this yr, Son went to the police.
The choose mentioned the lady and her confederate had abused Son’s celeb for his or her crime, and that Son appeared to have gone by way of “intense psychological anguish” after the case was reported within the media.
Son was in October named the second-highest paid footballer in Main League Soccer (MLS), North America’s top-tier soccer league akin to England’s Premier League.
In August, the 33-year-old left Tottenham after 10 years of service to affix the Los Angeles Soccer Membership, marking the costliest switch in MLS’ historical past.
Broadly thought to be certainly one of Asia’s greatest soccer stars, Son enjoys big reputation in his house nation and the area.
In 2022, whereas he was nonetheless with the Spurs, he turned the primary Asian to win the Premier League’s golden boot award introduced yearly to the main purpose scorer within the league.
Further reporting by Kelly Ng
