Seungri Denied Threatening Anyone. Then the Restaurant CCTV Came Out.

The denial was already on record. Then JTBC aired the footage.

Former BIGBANG member Seungri (real name Lee Seung-hyun, 36) has been charged with aggravated assault following an incident on August 8 at a restaurant in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam. He told media on the 10th that he did pick up a soju bottle but insisted there was no threat and no physical contact, promising to cooperate with investigators. Three days ago, JTBC's crime news program Sageon Banjang released the CCTV footage from that night.

What the footage shows: Seungri and two other men surrounding a man identified only as the complainant, who is seated. Seungri picks up a soju bottle from the table, extends his arm, and is then restrained by people in his group. He then appears to kick something and subsequently swings the bottle several more times while his companions try to hold him back.

What the complainant says happened

The complainant gave his account directly to camera. He says the three men stood in the aisle to block his exit while Seungri swung the bottle, and that on at least one occasion he raised his hand to deflect it and was struck. He also claims Seungri made the confrontation explicitly threatening, saying: "Do you think I'm a loser too? I'm working with organized crime and connected to people in China. I could smash your head and make a bloodbath. Killing you is nothing."

According to the complainant, the trouble started over photography. He says Seungri's group approached him suspecting he had taken pictures of them at the restaurant, and that the confrontation escalated from there.

Seungri's side pushes back hard

Seungri's camp has a substantially different version. A friend of Seungri who was also present that night spoke to media and said it was the complainant who walked over to their table uninvited, claiming to have a business proposal, and refused to leave after being asked to go multiple times. The friend says the complainant was never blocked in: "He came to our table himself. We kept telling him to leave. The bottle was picked up, yes, but there was no physical contact whatsoever."

Seungri himself flatly denied making any gangster-related threats, calling the claim "completely false." His camp also noted that the complainant exchanged text messages with the group after the incident, and that a week later he was saying he planned to come back with a business plan. When the lawsuit arrived instead, Seungri said he was blindsided. The complainant's explanation for those friendly post-incident messages: he was "playing along out of fear."

The friend added one detail that stands out. He says he later learned the complainant retrieved the restaurant's CCTV footage himself the very next day, before any formal complaint had been filed.

Police plan to begin questioning the complainant after the Chuseok holiday. No charges have been confirmed, and both sides are still actively contesting what the footage actually proves.

A long way from BIGBANG

Seungri debuted with BIGBANG in 2006 and was one of the group's most prominent solo performers for over a decade. In 2019 he became the central figure in the Burning Sun scandal, a sprawling case that exposed illegal activities at the nightclub he co-owned and led to his departure from the group and a public announcement of retirement from entertainment. He was ultimately convicted on nine counts including facilitation of prostitution and habitual gambling, sentenced to 18 months in prison, and released in February 2023. This new charge is the first serious legal matter to surface since.