Here’s The Shocking Amount That The Informant For Jung Joonyoung’s Golden Phone Received

The 2019 scandal of Jung Joonyoung and his golden phone rocked the world back then. It opened the gates for what was known as the huge Burning Sun scandal, involving multiple parties who were charged of illegal filming, rape, and more.

The matter started when an unknown informant sent KakaoTalk messages to SBS FunE in February 2019. The messages showed Seungri asking for prostitutes to be sent to the club’s clients.

Just a month later, a technician at a phone repair shop blowed the whistle on Jung Joonyoung and his friends. Jung Joonyoung had dropped off his phone for repairs at a shop. The technician retrieved thousands of messages restored to Jung Joonyoung’s phone. After a look at the contents which spanned between 2015 and 2016, he immediately reported the matter in the name of public interest.

As the messages incriminated many parties of drugs, prostitution, rape, working with the police and more, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission got involved. As a result, the whistleblowing technician was awarded ₩50.0 million KRW (about $38,200 USD) for his tip-off.

This is an unusually large amount for tip-offs, perhaps due to the scale of the events that were revealed through this tip-off. The reward amount was belatedly revealed on June 24, 2023, years after the scandal finally closed.