Couple arrested over sultry blackmail allegations

Prosecutors arrested a former beauty pageant contestant and her boyfriend on charges that they blackmailed a major company executive, demanding 3 billion won ($2.8 million) in exchange for the sex tape the woman made with him.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office reported on Tuesday that the 30-year-old, who was only identified by her surname Kim and had at one time participated in the Miss Korea contest, is suspected of having colluded with her 48-year-old boyfriend, surnamed Oh, in the scheme.

Prosecutors are currently questioning the two and are expected to submit a request for a pre-trial detention warrant on blackmail charges. Officials reported that Kim met the victim, the president of a major corporation, last year and engaged in sexual encounters at her home in Seoul between June and December. Oh then used the video footage to blackmail the man, claiming that he would make the video public unless the executive coughed up 3 billion won.

Prosecutors said the victim had paid the couple 40 million won before he reported the case to authorities last month. The victim submitted a naked screen shot of himself from a video clip, which the couple sent to him, as evidence to the authorities. Prosecutors are continuing to investigate the case, and it is not clear whether the former beauty pageant contestant approached the businessman with the intent to blackmail him, with Oh as her accomplice.

The latest case parallels a similar controversy that unfolded over recent months involving film celebrity Lee Byung-hun. The 45-year-old actor sued fashion model Lee Ji-yeon, 25, and 20-year-old Kim Dae-hee, a member of the now-disbanded girl group GLAM, for blackmailing him with a video clip that showed him making lewd comments over drinks with Kim. The two asked for 5 billion won from him in return for not publicly releasing the clip. On Jan. 15, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Lee to a year and two months in prison, while Kim Da-hee was ordered to serve one year.

BY LEE YOO-JEONG, KANG JIN-KYU [jkkang2@joongnag.co.kr]