K-pop star sentenced for sex crimes
Singer Kris Wu was found guilty of raping three intoxicated women
A Beijing court has sentenced Canadian-Chinese singer Kris Wu to 13 years in prison for raping three women at his home in 2020, while they were under the influence of alcohol. The singer was also found guilty of tax evasion and organizing an illegal orgy.
Wu, known in China as Wu Yifan, shot to fame as a member of Korean-Chinese pop group EXO and enjoyed a lucrative solo career after leaving the band in 2014. The 32-year-old was arrested last year after an 18-year-old student publicly accused him of coercing her and other girls, some under the age of 18, into sex.
The Chaoyang District People’s Court in Beijing found Wu guilty of raping three women at his Chinese residence in late 2020, "when they were drunk and did not know or [were] not able to resist,” according to a court statement seen by the BBC. Wu was sentenced to 11.5 years in prison for these rapes, and an additional 11 months for “assembling a crowd to engage in sexual promiscuity” in 2018.
Wu was also fined 600 million Yuan ($83.7 million) for tax evasion, and will be deported to Canada after serving his sentence.
Born in China and raised in Canada, Wu was one of China’s biggest celebrities before his arrest and conviction. After his split from EXO, he starred in nearly a dozen Chinese movies, judged variety shows, raised money for charity, and worked as an ambassador for 15 brands – including luxury marques like Bulgari, Louis Vuitton, and Porsche.
Wu’s downfall came as the Chinese government launched a crackdown on the excesses of celebrity culture. At a state-organized symposium in Beijing last September, celebrities and entertainment industry figures were urged to “oppose the decadent ideas of money worship [and] hedonism,” and to “abandon vulgar and kitsch inferior tastes.”
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