A Seoul appellate court on Friday commuted the sentence of a pro-baseball player-turned-entertainer, charged with fraud, from 18 months to one year.

Kang Byeong-gyu, 40, was found guilty of failing to return 300 million won ($273,822) that he borrowed from an acquaintance.

"A jail term is inevitable as the damage has not yet been reimbursed, although (Kang) came to an agreement with the victims,"

Lee Jong-un, a judge of the Seoul Central District Court, said in his ruling.

In the same ruling, the court, however, upheld a suspended sentence of the disgraced former baseball star for blackmailing top actor and hallyu star Lee Byung-hun.

Kang was sentenced to one year in jail, suspended for three years, for threatening to disclose Lee's private life and demanding hush money in 2010. Kang also hired gangsters to intimidate the actor at a TV drama filming location, according to court documents.

Lee, who is an established star in South Korea, rose to stardom in other Asian countries for his roles in the local TV series "Beautiful Days" (2001), "All In" (2003) and "Iris" (2009), riding the boom of Korean pop culture known as "hallyu" in those countries The 42-year-old recently starred in "Red 2," which opened in theaters in July of this year. (Yonhap News)