DOCUMENT: Celebrity, Crime

Celine Dion's $2M Hush Money Payment

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Celine Dion's $2M Hush Money Payment

FAME: L.A. private eye's strong-arm man enjoys the limelight.

Celine Dion and her husband/manager Rene Angelil paid $2 million in "hush money" to a woman who claimed that Angelil once fondled her in the elevator of a Las Vegas hotel. Details of the mid-2000 payment to Yun Kyeong Sung are contained in recently unsealed grand jury testimony, an excerpt from which you'll find here.

The grand jury, which voted last month to indict Sung and her husband on extortion charges, was empaneled to hear testimony that the couple, despite the $2 million payout, later sought to illegally wrest millions more from Dion and Angelil.

The hush money payment was disclosed in testimony by Martin Singer, the wired Los Angeles litigator who represented Dion and Angelil when Sung came forward in May 2000 with her abuse claim. While never acknowledging that Angelil groped Sung at the Imperial Palace Hotel, Singer testified that his clients agreed to the confidential $2 million settlement because of several personal reasons. (8 pages)

SORRY: Another story about a dopey reality TV contestant.