Court upholds seizure of YouTuber's prison funds in Kim Soo-hyun defamation case

A court has upheld its seizure of prison funds belonging to Kim Se-eui, head of the YouTube channel Gaseyon, who is being held on charges including defamation of actor Kim Soo-hyun. The court exempted 200,000 won ($149) per month from the seizure, leaving Kim with that amount to spend each month — less than 7,000 won a day.

YouTuber Eun Hyeon-jang said Sunday through his YouTube channel "Jangsa-ui Shin" that a provisional seizure order on Kim's prison funds, issued by the Seoul Central District Court in June, had recently been confirmed.

According to Eun, the court set aside 200,000 won per month from the seizure to cover Kim's minimum living expenses while in detention, limiting his average daily spending to roughly 6,600 won.

The decision appears to have partially accepted Kim's argument that a minimum amount of prison funds must be preserved to purchase daily necessities and medicine while in detention.

"Kim Se-eui kept filing lawsuits demanding that his prison spending limit be raised to 1 million won, claiming he couldn't shave because his electric razor had no battery and that a toenail had fallen off because he couldn't afford a bandage," Eun said. "But I fought him every step of the way."

"Right now Kim Se-eui has his home, his bank accounts and his prison funds all under seizure," Eun added. "There is nothing he can do."

Eun said it took him less than a minute to feel a rush of satisfaction upon seeing the ruling. "But to get here, I went through three rounds of litigation over a long period of time and spent about 20 million won ($14,900) in legal fees," he said.

Earlier, Kim had written a letter from detention in July saying the seizure of his prison funds was making life behind bars extremely difficult.

"I can no longer buy bottled water, toilet paper, toothpaste or a toothbrush, let alone medicine," Kim wrote. "I have been vomiting morning and evening for the past several days from a cold and an upset stomach, but I cannot buy cold medicine or stomach medicine."

Meanwhile, Kim has claimed that Kim Soo-hyun dated the late actor Kim Sae-ron when she was a minor. He also faces charges of spreading false information through YouTube and other platforms, alleging that pressure from Kim Soo-hyun's side to repay debts was the direct cause of Kim Sae-ron's death.

Prosecutors believe Kim profited from YouTube streams containing false claims and traced donation accounts linked to Gaseyon, questioned associates of the channel and conducted asset inquiries.

The investigation found that Kim earned at least 54.4 million won ($40,700) in donations and at least 115 million won in advertising revenue through his YouTube content, for a total of more than 169.4 million won. Prosecutors filed for a preservation order on those proceeds and last month won court approval.

A preservation order is a provisional measure that freezes assets allegedly obtained through criminal activity before a final verdict is handed down, preventing the suspect from concealing or disposing of the proceeds.