YouTube: Atozy / Johnny SomaliInfamous streamer Johnny Somali has been hit with yet another criminal charge that carries mandatory prison time, a legal expert says.
Johnny Somali, real name Ramsey Khalid Ismael, has been hit with a number of criminal charges since the South Korean government first got involved in November 2024 during his stay in the country.
The streamer was charged with Obstruction of Business after causing chaos in a 7-Eleven convenience store during a broadcast, along with two counts of the Minor Crimes Act for using a dead fish to disturb passengers on a bus and twerking on a subway.
In addition to yet another possible Obstruction of Business charge, a legal expert who’s been following Somali’s journey in South Korean courts says there’s even more trouble coming his way… and the punishment could carry mandatory time in jail.
YouTubeJohnny Somali facing up to 7 years in prison over AI Deepfakes
A Seoul-based lawyer known as ‘Legal Mindset’ went live on March 27, 2025 to explain a fifth charge that he says has been “officially merged” into his case.
According to Legal Mindset, the charge carries “mandatory prison time with no option of [a] fine,” meaning he’s almost guaranteed to get thrown behind bars.
In his stream, Legal Mindset stated that the charge Ismael faces is related to AI Deepfakes he made, which included one of Korean streamer BongBong, who he used to make it look like he and the influencer were kissing in November 2024.
In translated court documents shown off on stream by Ismael himself, Legal Mindset revealed that the streamer has been charged with “Violation of the Special Act on the Punishment, etc. of Sexual Violence Crimes (false video material, etc.).”
“This falls under a sex crime,” the lawyer explained. “It will no longer, after Ramsey is guilty of this, whether he is proved guilty by the court or whether he pleads guilty, you can safely say without it being defamatory at all in any country, that he is a sex criminal.
“This deepfake is sexual because in Korean law, French kissing… is considered sexual,” he continued. “Regardless of the content, distributing AI content without consent is illegal, but under Korean law, if you’re French kissing, that’s sexual.”
Johnny Somali is facing prison time after using AI Deepfakes to create a video that looked like he was kissing popular Korean streamer BongBong.That’s not all; he also explained that, in South Korea, streaming such content for profit carries a prison sentence of no more than 7 years, as he also distributed the material using an “information and communications network” like Discord and other platforms.
“Johnny Somali is receiving an aggravated sentence because he streamed it,” the lawyer continued. “He put it on Discord, because he had to do it for the content.”
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Johnny Somali is currently awaiting a second court date on April 9 after claiming he wasn’t aware of the second Obstruction of Business charge against him — and now, there’s yet another charge coming his way that could extend his stay in South Korea for years.
However, he did plead guilty to his first Obstruction of Business charge and the two counts of the Minor Crimes Act during a drunken appearance in court on March 7.
