indicted on charges of blackmail and defamation with prosecutors alleging that Kang and Kwon colluded to blackmail Lee for large sums of money in November 2009 before Kwon went on to file her civil lawsuit in December after Lee refused to pay. Lee was cleared of the illegal gambling charges on March 19, 2010, with prosecutors citing no evidence. Kwon's claim for damages was eventually dropped in August 2010 due to her lack of participation in proceedings. Kang was eventually sentenced to one year in prison and three years probation in 2013 on his fraud and assault charges. Blackmail scandal On August 28, 2014, Lee was blackmailed by singer Dahee from K-pop girl group GLAM and model Lee Ji-yeon for 5 billion won (about ) in exchange for not releasing, on the internet, a compromising video of him making sexual jokes while drinking with them on July 3. Dahee and Lee Ji-yeon were arrested on September 1, after Lee reported the crime to police when they handed him two suitcases to transport the money. It was later revealed that the crime was fully intentional and pre-planned, as both Dahee and Lee Ji-yeon looked for plane tickets to escape to Europe and purchased two suitcases to be used for transporting the money. Moreover, the two women attempted to film an additional video of Lee hugging Lee Ji-yeon by secretly placing a smartphone in a kitchen sink, but they failed to do so. However, Lee Ji-yeon claimed that the blackmailing was an impulsive act after Lee broke up with her, for which Lee Byung-hun's agency released an official statement stating that Lee had not once met her alone and that he mentioned to the two women that he wanted to stop meeting them when he sensed ulterior motives from them after talking about their financial difficulties, demanding he buy them a house. The final trial was held at the Seoul District Court on January 15, 2015, where Dahee was sentenced to a year in jail and Lee Ji-yeon to a year and two months. In February, following the sentencing, Lee requested a pardon for the women while the prosecution in charge felt that the sentence was too lenient. In March, both women, who were in jail for six months, received a suspended sentence for two years following Lee's pardon request. The K-pop girl group GLAM was disbanded following the sentencing of Dahee.