A South Korean district court has sentenced a woman in her 20s to four years in prison for blackmailing football star Son Heung-min with a false claim that she was pregnant with his child. According to court findings, the woman, alongside an accomplice in his 40s, fabricated the story to pressure the former Tottenham Hotspur captain into paying them. The court revealed that she had no knowledge of whether she was actually pregnant when she approached Son with the allegation sometime last year.
The scheme led to the extortion of ₩300 million won ($200,000; £153,000), with the woman threatening to make the claim public unless Son complied. Local media reports indicate that the court condemned the pair’s conduct as a deliberate attempt to exploit the footballer’s public image and personal life for financial gain. The accomplice was also found guilty in connection with the plot, marking a significant legal response to high-profile celebrity blackmail cases.
As Son Heung-min continues his career under intense global attention, this ruling raises a larger question: how vulnerable are public figures to manipulative schemes in the digital age? Visit www.jocomms.com for more news stories.
