Hwang Ui-Jo, dubbed “South Korea’s most prolific goalscorer” by football expert Steve Han, was about to embark on the next phase of his career in May when he became embroiled in a nasty rumor on Instagram the following month.
In the now-deleted post, Hwang was accused of having several affairs with various women and refused to commit to any of them, citing the excuse that he had to travel abroad for his matches. In addition, a video showing a naked man, identified as Hwang, and a woman performing sexual acts was released to back up the allegations.
The post went viral on social media, hurting Hwang’s reputation and making him a target for trolls and hecklers.
Although the post has been deleted, unfortunately, this did not stop it from spreading to other parts of the web. Numerous posts later appeared on Twitter and other platforms, saying that the contentious recordings were for sale. Hwang’s lawyer pledged to bring legal action against those individuals, as per Korea Times.
Initially, the person who posted it went under the guise of being Hwang’s ex-lover, however, recent reports stated that the culprit was actually his sister in-law, whose motives remained unknown to this day.
Hwang first reported his mobile to be missing on November 2022 while playing in Greece for Olympiacos, and that afterwards, he started receiving threats that the malicious content on his phone would be disseminated on the web.
The 31-year-old refuted the allegations and filed a complaint for defamation and blackmailing against the user.
Seoul-based law firm Jeongsol also released a handwritten statement of Hwang afterwards, swearing that the information spread was ‘fake’ and that ‘he never engaged in any illegal act’ in his life.
Hwang tagged as suspect
In an unexpected turn of events, the latest news revealed that Hwang took the tapes without the knowledge of his sexual partners, officially changing his status from plaintiff to suspect.
“We have indeed investigated player Hwang as a suspect, changing his status from complainant to suspect last Saturday (18th),” the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said in a statement via MSN.
As reported by Lee Ji-Young and Paik Ji-Hwan of Korea JoongAng Daily, Hwang has been summoned by the police agency and appeared before the police on Saturday. Subsequently, the forward headed out for China on Sunday in preparation for the Korean national team’s World Cup qualifier against China on Tuesday.
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