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Korean Actor Hwang Jung-eum Gets Suspended Term In $3 Million Crypto Case

by admin September 28, 2025

In brief

South Korean actor Hwang Jung-eum received a suspended prison sentence for embezzling $3 million from her agency to invest in crypto.
The Jeju District Court showed leniency after Hwang repaid the entire embezzled amount and was deemed a first-time offender.
The scandal derailed her career, with TV shows editing her out and advertisers dropping her from campaigns.

South Korean actress Hwang Jung-eum walked out of Jeju District Court in tears Thursday after receiving a two-year suspended prison sentence for embezzling $3 million from her own agency to invest in crypto.

The court handed Hwang the suspended sentence, meaning she will serve no jail time unless she commits another crime within four years, for violating Korea’s Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, according to a Korea JoongAng Daily report.

Prosecutors had sought a three-year jail sentence in August, but judges cited her repayment of the full amount and her status as a first-time offender who had made full restitution.

Hwang embezzled about 4.34 billion won ($3.1 million) from her agency in early 2022, as per the indictment cited in the report.

Approximately 4.2 billion won of that sum was invested directly in crypto, while the remainder was used to pay property and local taxes via credit card payments, Decrypt reported earlier.

Kadan Stadelmann, CTO at Komodo, told Decrypt that East Asian and Western regulators now show “similar outcomes when it comes to enforcing the law against crypto embezzlers,” though the West has historically had an edge in “blockchain analytics.”

Asia is “catching up,” he noted, suggesting South Korea could look to U.S. financial controls where the FTC enforces “transparency, disclosure, and accountability” in celebrity crypto promotions, standards that could guide oversight of talent agencies and sports firms.

In Hwang’s case, the company involved was a family-run corporation solely owned by her, with only one actor under management, herself. At her first trial on May 15, Hwang admitted to all charges and requested additional time to repay the full amount.

The court showed leniency after Hwang sold personal assets and repaid the entire embezzled amount in installments.

She had returned about 3 billion won by her first trial, then covered the remainder on May 30 and June 5.

“I was just trying to work hard and live honestly, but I neglected financial and tax matters, which led to this situation,” Hwang said during her final hearing on August 21. “I am remorseful.”

Her legal team said that the misused funds originated from her personal entertainment income and were temporarily held in her name because corporations are restricted from holding crypto directly, according to the report.

“Since the agency’s profits ultimately stem from the defendant’s own work, they can be seen as rightfully belonging to her,” Hwang’s attorney said in court.

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September 28, 2025 0 comments

Esports

GTA 5’s Trevor actor recommends book to fans over GTA 6

by admin September 22, 2025

Steven Ogg, the actor behind Trevor from GTA 5, says he feels “nothing” about Grand Theft Auto 6 despite fans asking him about it all the time.

Grand Theft Auto’s single-player characters have created some iconic moments in gaming. Everyone reminisces on CJ from San Andreas, Niko Bellic in GTA IV, and Vice City’s Tommy Vercetti.

However, Grand Theft Auto 5’s trio of Michael, Franklin, and Trevor have gone to a new level. The actors behind the three main characters have become stars and regularly meet GTA fans at conventions and meet and greets. Ned Luke, the actor behind Michael, even regularly streams the game.

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Even though he has appeared in The Walking Dead and Better Call Saul, Steven Ogg, the actor behind Trevor, is still most recognizable from his role in the game. However, he still has no interest in playing it.

Steven Ogg feels “nothing” about GTA 6

Ogg, who was appearing alongside his fellow Grand Theft Auto 5 actors at a convention, was asked about the game and GTA 6, too. “How excited are you for GTA 6?” the actor was asked.

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“I feel nothing inside,” he quipped back. “I’m not a gamer. I’ve never played video games, so I feel absolutely nothing.

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“Someone said yesterday ‘at one point you should play GTA 5’ and I said Why? They said ‘cause it’s so great’ and I said one day you should read Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and he went completely blank.”

Ogg added that “books are my thing” after imploring the interviewer to read Crime and Punishment now.

The clip, which was shared by GTA 6 Countdown, has gone on to reach over 2 million views, with fans ‘shocked’ that the actor hasn’t played his own work.

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There have been claims previously that Ogg “hates” the character, but he refuted that by saying it was an “awesome” job. The Canadian would also be open to returning in GTA 6, but would want Trevor to “pass the touch” to new characters by dying early.

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September 22, 2025 0 comments

Trevor walks away from a burning van in Grand Theft Auto 5.

Gaming Gear

GTA 5 Trevor actor feels ‘nothing inside’ for GTA 6, challenges gamers to read Crime and Punishment: ‘Books are my thing’

by admin September 22, 2025

Excited for Grand Theft Auto 6? Odds are the answer is yes. With Rockstar already calling it the “largest game launch in history” over half a year out from release, I’m pretty sure the only people who aren’t feeling some kind of way about it are uncontacted in the Amazon or… they’re Steven Ogg, who played Trevor Philips in GTA 5.

In a recent, brief chat with YouTuber HarrisonShippp, Ogg was asked how excited he was for GTA 6’s release next year. “I feel nothing inside,” answered Ogg, definitively. And just in case you’re wondering if that’s a more general cry for help, he quickly made clear he was speaking specifically about GTA: “I’m not a gamer. I’ve never played a videogame, so I feel absolutely nothing.”

Which, hey, fair enough. Some voice actors get super deep into their roles—like the cast of Baldur’s Gate 3—and for others it’s just a paycheque. Neither’s an illegitimate approach, and Ogg has made clear before that he’s not keen on GTA fans essentially treating him like Trevor in real life.

But then it gets a little weirder. “I think someone said yesterday at one point, ‘You should play GTA 5,'” recounted Ogg. “I said, ‘Why?’ They said ‘Because it’s so great!’ And I said, ‘Well one day you should read Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment’ and he went completely blank.”

Which is, uh, a bit of a non-sequitur, and I can’t help but wonder if Ogg’s interlocutor didn’t go “completely blank” because he was outmanoeuvred, but because countering a suggestion that you play GTA 5 with your own suggestion to read Dostoevsky is like responding to ‘You should try Indian food’ with ‘You should visit the proud nation of Denmark in autumn.’

Trevor from GTA 5 says this about GTA 6 – YouTube

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“Do you know Dostoevsky? Fyodor Dostoevsky?” Ogg interrogates his interviewer, who says he does not. “So there you go,” replies Ogg. “Why don’t you read that?

“Are you excited about that book coming out?” asks Ogg, of a book which was published during the reign of Tsar Alexander II. “See? It’s the same thing. Books are my thing.”

Now, I think Ogg was trying to make a point that asking him about games was like asking someone who doesn’t read books about books, but it’s certainly quite a roundabout way of going about it, and maybe a touch pretentious. The irony is, of course, that Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov—Crime and Punishment’s murderous main character—would probably be one of the most terminally online, videogame-meme-spouting nihilist weirdos in the world if he had the misfortune to exist in 2025. He sure as hell would’ve had feelings about GTA 6.

And anyway, The Idiot is better.

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September 22, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

MindsEye’s lead actor talks being the face of a game that flops hard

by admin September 16, 2025

From an outside perspective, I think it was probably fairly obvious that MindsEye was never going to do very well. There was barely any game to show off, so they mostly didn’t. What they did show didn’t look very good either, and when it came out, it was a glitchy mess. This all put 300 staff members at risk of being laid off, the full extent of which still being not particularly clear. And in a recent interview, the game’s lead actor Alex Hernandez has shared his own experience of being the face of the game (spoiler alert: it’s not great).

Speaking on the FRVR Podcast, Hernandez spoke of what it was like having his face attached to such a mess of a game, quite plainly saying, “It’s hard. I’m not gonna lie about that. It’s a difficult thing to spend two-and-a-half years on a project that you’re really proud of and you’re proud of your contribution to it… for the 300 or so employees at Build A Rocket Boy, you’re like ‘I hope this goes really well.’ I want them all to get raises and have a giant party and have this be the job that launches their career.”

Perhaps the more upsetting thing to hear Hernandez say was how his name will “now be associated with something that many people have regarded as pretty f*****g bad. And as an artist, as a man, as a gamer, that hurts, it’s wildly painful.” This is an aspect of an increased use of motion and facial capture we’re not really thinking of.

My best guess is that actors’ real faces are being used more and more to help get better and more believable in-game performances (those who know better feel free to sound off in the comments). The trade-off here is that you are then thrusting some of these actors into the spotlight, one which features a community that, as many of us know, isn’t always the kindest, and I am putting that as politely as possible.

Personally, I always prefer a tightly designed character over motion capture anyway – even if I did enjoy getting a first-person perspective of Mads Mikkelsen in Death Stranding – but perhaps there’s yet another lesson to be learned here in the need for safeguards to be put in place for the people that are being put at the front of high profile games.

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September 16, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

MindsEye actor feared he may never work in games again following disastrous launch, but admits players are entitled to their opinion

by admin September 16, 2025

Alex Hernandez, the actor behind MindsEye protagonist Jacob Diaz, feared he may never work again following the game’s disastrous reception.

Build A Rocket Boy’s game launched to major criticism due to its glitches and bugs, not to mention shallow gameplay. Yet with his face on the game’s cover art, Hernandez is intrinsically linked to the game.

“It’s a difficult thing to spend two-and-a-half years on a project that you’re really proud of and you’re proud of your contribution to it,” said Hernandez on the latest FRVR Podcast. “And I only had positive experiences working on it. The people I was working with, I was proud for them, of them, I wanted it to be a success for them just as much for myself.”

MindsEye Review – Ridiculous, Inconsistent And Utterly AtrociousWatch on YouTube

He continued: “Just the response… I was like, ‘I might never work in a game again’. Because one of the caveats of being the face on the box is that people, rightly or wrongly, will associate all of their opinions and, more importantly their emotions, about this game with my face,” he said.

Still, Hernandez admits players are entitled to their opinions on the game, despite being on the receiving end of extreme vitriol.

“Gamers are a unique species, and I am one of them, where the attachment to the experience and the product is so strong, the feelings are so strong,” he said, “and the internet is an anonymous place where people will share things they would never share to your face, ever, even if they actually hated it… they just wouldn’t look you in the face and say, ‘everyone who worked on this game deserved to die. This is f**king awful, these guys are idiots’. No one would ever say that to your face. And, I think, at the same time, you’re entitled to that.”

Previously, Hernandez provided the voice and likeness for Lincoln Clay in Mafia 3, another game with a poor reception at launch.

“I’m not a superstitious man, but I can’t help but have some kind of Spidey Sense, like, ‘Is it just me?’ Do I have like the opposite of the golden touch, like the sh*t-brown touch, everything I touch turns to poop?” he joked.

Build A Rocket Boy has continued to update the game since, and promised it’s “committed” to enhancing the gameplay experience.

Still, the disastrous launch has put the future of publisher IOI Partners into question. “So, IO Interactive will publish our own games internally,” said IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak. “IOI Partners? That remains to be seen.”

“Although it shows some early promise, MindsEye is sunk by a ridiculous story, inconsistent writing, poorly designed mission scenarios, and utterly atrocious combat,” reads our MindsEye review.

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September 16, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

French Lara Croft actor starts lawsuit over alleged AI-generated voice lines in Aspyr’s Tomb Raider remasters

by admin September 12, 2025

Françoise Cadol, the long-time French voice actor for Lara Croft, has reportedly launched legal action against Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered publishers Aspyr over alleged use of generative AI to replicate her voice for lines in the game. Cadol claims Aspyr didn’t contact her to ask for permission, and it appears the voice of Croft in at least one other dub of the remasters may have been put in a similar position.

According to a report from French publication Le Parisien, spotted by TheGamer, Cadol has issued a cease and desist to Aspyr over the matter.

We’ve reached out to Aspyr for comment.

It looks like the alleged AI-generated lines may have been added to the game by Patch 2 in mid-August. The notes for that patch include one that reads: “Restored missing or incorrect voiceover lines in various languages (especially Brazilian Portuguese)”.

Cadol told Le Parisien she’d been alerted to the possible use of genAI to mimic her lines in the remaster by Tomb Raider fans, who’ve circulated what they believe to be examples of it happening on social media. Some of the lines supposedly using genAI in the remaster look to be tutorial instructions telling you how to do things like climb, with the comparison below featuring some different wording in the Remastered versions of some lines. The apparent genAI lines have a more robotic edge to them, in contrast to the natural inflections Cadol speaks with in the original.

🇫🇷 ALERTE INFO — Le patch des remasters de Tomb Raider IV, V et VI par @AspyrMedia vient de sortir…

Mauvaise surprise pour les fans français de Lara Croft, certaines répliques de Françoise Cadol dans le tutoriel ont été refaites avec l’IA et ça s’entend ! pic.twitter.com/YRbZsY669H

— Bastien D. Fry  (@BastienDruker) August 15, 2025

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The French version isn’t the only dub of the game to have allegedly done this. Lene Bastos, Croft’s Brazilian Portuguese actor, has posted a video to Instagram stating that Tomb Raider fans have informed her that some of voice lines appear to have been subject to AI generation in the remasters. Bastos claims to have recieved a message from Aspyr about it, with the publishers putting the blame at the feet of an external development partner and telling her the lines will soon be removed in the game’s next patch.

Voice actors fighting for protections against the possibility of companies using generative AI to mimic their voices was a key element of the SAG-AFTRA strike that concluded a few months ago. “Basically you have to get our consent to make a digital replica of us,” Horizon and Borderlands voice actor Ashly Burch told the BBC when the strike was suspended. “You have to tell us how you’re going to use it, and then you have to compensate us fairly.”

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September 12, 2025 0 comments

Esports

French Lara Croft actor issues formal notice to Aspyr, claims Tomb Raider remasters used AI replicated voice

by admin September 11, 2025

Françoise Cadol, the French voice of Lara Croft in multiple Tomb Raider games, has issued a formal notice to publisher Aspyr, accusing the company of using AI to replicate her voice in Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered without her consent.

In an interview with French publication Le Parisien (translated via Google Translate), published on September 10, 2025, Cadol, who also provided the French dub for Angelina Jolie in the Tomb Raider films, explained that it was fans who first pointed out the similarities between Lara Croft’s voice (Cadol’s voice) in the original games and the voice used in the remasters.

“I call them the guardians of the voices,” she told the publication.

“Very quickly, these buyers of the compilation realized that the voice of Lara Croft, who gives gameplay instructions, was not mine. It caused a real uproar among the community.”

Fans claim the issue arose with Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered Patch 2, released on August 14, 2025, which added restored lines from the original game.

It’s claimed, however, that developer/publisher Aspyr used AI to replicate Cadol’s voice for these lines rather than having her re-record the lines herself.

Jonathan Elkaim, Françoise Cadol’s lawyer who specialises in intellectual property and AI, claims that you can “immediately notice” the allegedly AI voice has “a very strong metallic impact” and is “very chopped, without intonation.”

He claims it was “the actress’s voice that was used to recreate this artificial voice.”

Elkaim accuses Aspyr of “misleading” consumers, while Cadol claims the replication of her voice using AI would be a “betrayal” and “total disrespect” to fans.

“The decency would have been to inform the public concerned that it wasn’t their voice,” Elkaim told Le Parisien.

Elkaim and Cadol have now issued a formal notice to Aspyr, requesting “the compilation be withdrawn, with supporting documentation to determine the number of copies sold.”

“Aspyr has been informed; it’s up to them to respond to us, and quickly enough, so that they can stop sales,” Elkaim told the publication.

GamesIndustry.biz has reached out to Aspyr for comment on this story.

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September 11, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

‘Star Wars’ Actor Teases ‘Clone Wars’ Favorite May Be Poised to Return

by admin September 11, 2025

The sprawling Star Wars universe is in a little bit of a “calm before the storm” moment, with a huge slate of upcoming films, shows, novels, and video games looming on the horizon like a binary sunset. And to add to the melee, an actor from the franchise’s TV darling, The Clone Wars, is teasing the return of a fan-favorite character.

Speaking with The Direct, voice actor Jim Cummings appeared to confirm that his Clone Wars character, Hondo Ohnaka, will be making a return to the series.

“I think you’re gonna have to stay tuned, because Hondo is not done yet,” Cummings told The Direct.

Hondo Ohnaka has also appeared in other Star Wars IP, including Rebels where is appears hero Ezra Bridger, as well as in theme parks like Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. A Weequay pirate and outlaw, his past exploits include tussles with Jedi like Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano. At the same time, the pirate made a name for himself galavanting across the galaxy—the kind of swindler fans couldn’t help but love. The Direct also notes that among Hondo’s exploits are his fights with the Sith, key among them his kidnapping of Count Doku and making an enemy out of Darth Maul.

Cummings was hush-hush about the specific nature of the Clone Wars-era character’s return and whether he will appear in the upcoming sequel animated series, Maul: Shadow Lord. But the actor heaped praise on the adored character as one of his own favorites.

“He’s one of my favorites, because he’s a lovable rogue. You could probably actually trust him,” Cummings said. “He looks out for Ezra, and he looks out for the younglings, as they call them, and he won’t do anything to harm anybody. But I wouldn’t want to play cards against him.”

While fans will have to wait and see if Hondo will, in fact, make his return in the Maul animated series, they can get to know the lovable rogue in the meantime in game developer Ubisoft’s latest Star Wars: Outlaws’ DLC, A Pirate’s Fortune. In it, hero smuggler Kay Vess and her cute animal companion, Nix, form an alliance with Hondo in their search for hidden treasure in the Khepi system while butting heads with Stinger Tash and her Rokana Raiders.

Should the above adventure prove tantalizing, folks can play Star Wars: Outlaws on Xbox, PlayStation 5, and PC, and see what all the hype about Hondo is firsthand.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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September 11, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

KPop Demon Hunters Actor Pays Tribute To Her Character At VMAs

by admin September 9, 2025

Last night, some of the biggest names in music gathered in Elmont, New York, for the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards. Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter, and Lady Gaga all took home some of the biggest awards, but one of the presenting groups at the event stole the show: the voices of Huntr/x, the fictional demon-slaying K-pop group from KPop Demon Hunters. Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami, the singing voices for Rumi, Mira, and Zoey in the Netflix animated musical, all came together to present the award for Best Album. Sadly, the group didn’t perform any of the bangers from the movie, but Nuna did take the opportunity to pay tribute to her character at the show with her outfit.

In the opening of KPop Demon Hunters, we see Huntr/x fans being interviewed on camera about the group. A few Mira fans talk about how she’s not only the group’s leading dancer and the black sheep of her family, but is also a fashion icon on and off the stage, with one fan raving about how she wore a black sleeping bag to the Met Gala and it was an iconic moment. Nuna didn’t wear a one-to-one recreation of Mira’s sleeping bag outfit to the VMAs, but she did wear a big puffy jacket that was a clear homage to the character over the rest of her outfit. Maybe if she attends the Met Gala next year she can fully commit, but for now, we’ll take the nod.

Who else could wear a sleeping bag to the #VMAs???

Audrey Nuna of KPop Demon Hunters pays tribute to Mira on the red carpet. | 📸: Getty pic.twitter.com/irG5g2PUzM

— Netflix (@netflix) September 7, 2025

Huntr/x was nominated for one award at the show, with “Golden” being in the running for “Song of the Summer,” but losing out to Tate McRae’s “Just Keep Watching.” Even without the award, the song has been incredibly successful outside of the movie, having topped the charts in over 20 countries worldwide. Hopefully, at some point this year we get to hear some of the songs from the movie performed live during awards season. For now, we have videos of the girls singing them at karaoke bars.

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September 9, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Vodafone is testing an AI ‘actor’ to sell its products instead of paying a human to do it

by admin September 8, 2025

Vodafone made a commercial starring an AI avatar posing as a real lady. This is interesting because Vodafone is a major global brand and not a fly-by-night TikTok company using a ridiculous deepfake of Jackson Galaxy to sell cat toys.

The tells in the commercial are obvious and what one would expect. The AI avatar’s hair is a bit off, which ruins the charade that this is a real person. The physical mannerisms and speaking tone are also wonky. A facial mole moves around at one point. It’s AI. You know the drill.

The company responded to a question on a message board as to why it couldn’t put “a real person in front of the camera” by saying this is simply an experiment. It said it was “testing different styles of advertising — this time with AI,” and that “AI is so much a part of everyday life these days that we also try it out in advertising.”

This isn’t the first Vodafone ad to feature generative AI. It released a fully AI-generated commercial last year that spurred a bit of controversy, despite looking absolutely awful. Social media platforms are also becoming increasingly littered with AI-generated virtual influencers.

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September 8, 2025 0 comments