Customer Dies After Being Left on Sofa for 9 Hours Following Consumption of 'Fake Whiskey'

Owners of an entertainment bar in downtown Busan have been sentenced to prison for causing the death of a customer by leaving them unattended after serving them fake whiskey.

According to legal circles on Wednesday, July 15, the Busan District Court Criminal Division 5 (Presiding Judge Kim Hyun-soon) sentenced a 30-year-old individual, identified as A, to eight years in prison, and a 40-year-old individual, identified as B, to four years in prison on charges including abandonment resulting in death.

The defendants, who operated an entertainment bar in Busanjin-gu, Busan, were indicted for charges of leaving a customer in their 30s to die after making them severely intoxicated with fake whiskey on August 16 of last year.

The customer lost consciousness after drinking what is known as "fukashi whiskey"—a mixture of leftover alcohol sold as genuine whiskey—but the owners left the victim on a sofa outside the bar for nine hours, leading to death from acute alcohol poisoning.

It was reported that the defendants had been manufacturing and selling fake whiskey by collecting leftover alcohol from customers between September 2024 and November of last year.

The court stated, "We have determined the sentences by taking into account that while the defendants deposited 100 million won for the victim's bereaved family, the family refused to accept it."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.