HOOK Entertainment Reveals It Has Paid Lee Seung Gi Over 4 Billion KRW In Reparations
According to HOOK Entertainment, the agency has repaid Lee Seung Gi in full.
On December 16, HOOK Entertainment revealed they had repaid Lee Seung Gi, ₩2.90 billion KRW (about $2.20 million USD) in principle and another ₩1.20 billion KRW (about $910,000 USD) in interest.
The agency made the revelation in a statement in which it claimed they had aimed to come to an agreement with Lee Seung Gi swiftly, but the two sides believed the agency owed vastly different amounts.
As per Lee Seung Gi’s request, we aimed to provide the accounting documents and come to an agreement on a settlement amount by this week. However, Lee Seung Gi’s representatives asked for an amount far greater than what HOOK Entertainment owed, and thus we could not come to an agreement.
— HOOK Entertainment
Nevertheless, the agency revealed that they didn’t want a lengthy legal dispute with Lee Seung Gi and, in the end, had paid what they believed the actor was owed and then some.
Despite this, HOOK Entertainment didn’t want to have a drawn-out dispute over the settlement issue with Lee Seung Gi, who has been with us for a long time. Therefore, in addition to the settlement amount of ₩1.30 billion KRW (about $985,000 USD), we paid an additional ₩2.90 billion KRW (about $2.20 million USD) in missed payments and another ₩1.20 billion KRW (about $910,000 USD) in interest.
— HOOK Entertainment
The label then stated that it had filed a lawsuit with the courts to confirm that it no longer owed Lee Seung Gi any money after the payments.
As we have confirmed that there are no further debts to Lee Seung Gi, we filed a lawsuit to examine if any debts remained in hopes of closing the dispute with Lee Seung Gi.
— HOOK Entertainment
The agency’s statement comes after its drastic dissent after it was alleged in a Dispatch article that it had never paid Lee Seung Gi for his music career and that it had gaslighted the artist into believing he wasn’t a profitable singer.
The label’s full statement is available below.
Hello, this is HOOK Entertainment.
First, we’d like to apologize to Lee Seung Gi, who is suffering the most.
As previously revealed, HOOK Entertainment has received a request from Lee Seung Gi to provide him with an accounting of the revenue generated from his music career during his contract with the agency.
As per Lee Seung Gi’s request, we aimed to provide the accounting documents and come to an agreement on a settlement amount by this week.
However, Lee Seung Gi’s representatives asked for an amount far greater than what HOOK Entertainment owed, and thus we could not come to an agreement.
Despite this, HOOK Entertainment didn’t want to have a drawn-out dispute over the settlement issue with Lee Seung Gi, who has been with us for a long time. Therefore, in addition to the settlement amount of ₩1.30 billion KRW (about $985,000 USD), we paid an additional ₩2.90 billion KRW (about $2.20 million USD) in missed payments and another ₩1.20 billion KRW (about $910,000 USD) in interest.
As we have confirmed that there are no further debts to Lee Seung Gi, we filed a lawsuit to examine if any debts remained in hopes of closing the dispute with Lee Seung Gi.
HOOK Entertainment would like to apologize to Lee Seung Gi for creating the misunderstanding and dispute through our mistakes. In the future, we hope to achieve through the courts a settlement that is undisputed by both parties, and we will do our best to achieve this.
We’d like to once again apologize to all those hurt by this incident.
— HOOK Entertainment
