Hook Entertainment has paid South Korean actor-singer Lee Seung-gi a sum totaling over ₩5billion. With this, the management agency claims it has settled its debt to the entertainer, who had accused the company of withholding the profits of his 18-year music career from him.
In a statement issued to South Korean press earlier today (December 16), the management agency claimed that earlier this week it sent Lee the data on his digital music earnings for the duration of his exclusive contract with the agency – which Lee filed to terminate earlier this month.
Both parties were unable to reach a mutual agreement on the sum owed, Hook Entertainment said, as the figure put forward by Lee was “too different” from the amount Hook deemed he was owed.
In order to avoid “a prolonged dispute over unpaid earnings,” Hook said it paid Lee ₩2.9billion (approximately £1,817,941) worth of unpaid earnings and ₩1.2 billion (approximately £752,251) worth of delayed interest, on top of his base payment of ₩1.3billion (approximately £814,840). The sum totals ₩5.4billion (approximately £3,384,722).
With this payment, Hook Entertainment claims that the company no longer owes further debts to Lee, and that it had already filed a debt validation lawsuit with the court to formally end the dispute.
“Regardless of the reason, Hook sincerely apologises once again to Lee Seung-gi for causing this misunderstanding and dispute through our mistakes,” Hook’s statement read, as translated by Soompi. “We hope that in the future, we will be able to reach a transparent settlement through the court so that neither side is left with any doubts, and we will do our utmost to achieve this goal.”
Hours after Hook issued this statement, Lee himself issued a statement on Instagram saying he had been notified of a ₩5billion deposit in his bank account earlier today (December 16). Lee said he will continue to “fight in court” to seek transparency on how Hook calculated the sum.
“It seems that Hook Entertainment probably thinks that I took legal action simply to receive money,” Lee said, as translated by Soompi. He also reiterated prior claims by his lawyers that he has “never even received one of those typical statements of accounts for my music profits” and accused the agency of “trying to unilaterally wrap up this case under the pretext of paying the unpaid earnings”.
Lee said that his dispute with Hook was not about the money, but a matter of principle: “The reason why I filed a lawsuit against Hook is not because of the unpaid earnings. Someone’s hard work and sweat should not be misused by someone else’s greed. I thought that fulfilling this mission is the best I can do.”
Lee said that he planned to donate the sum, excluding legal fees, to charity. “Of course, the ₩5billion I received today is such a big and valuable amount of money to me. It contains the sweat of my teens, 20s, and 30s,” he wrote. “However, if this money can be used for those who are more in need than me, the happiness and value I feel will exceed that of just ₩5billion.”
This development comes weeks after CEO Kwon Jin-young promised to “take full responsibility” for the company’s dispute with Lee. In a statement to South Korean press on November 30, the executive said of the matter: “I do not want to cause any harm to Hook Entertainment, the company I have established with all my 25 years, as well as to the celebrities.”
Prior to this, Hook had denied allegations that the star had not been paid for any of his music ventures over the span of his 18-year career. The allegations emerged after Lee had requested a full report of revenue generated through his music ventures from his agency in November, with his legal counsel alleging that Lee “was not even aware of generating profits from music”.
Hook had also previously claimed that both the agency and Lee had signed an agreement regarding the actor’s music revenue in 2021, which was later countered by Lee’s legal counsel, who maintained that he “never received a statement of accounts for his music profits”.