Hook Entertainment Releases New Statement Regarding Conflict With Lee Seung Gi Over Unpaid Music Profits

Nov 25, 2022

Hook Entertainment has responded to Lee Seung Gi’s legal representative saying the singer has not been paid for his music releases over the past 18 years.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that Lee Seung Gi had sent a certification of contents to his agency Hook Entertainment, asking for transparent disclosure of payment. Recently, the agency’s office building was also seized and searched by the Severe Crime Investigation Division of the National Police Agency due to suspicion of embezzlement by some executives. On November 21, Dispatch released a report that claimed Lee Seung Gi had not received any of his revenue from his music and that five years worth of statements from 2004 to 2009 were missing. Hook Entertainment’s CEO Kwon Jin Young briefly responded they are in the process of fact-checking. On November 24, Lee Seung Gi’s legal representative confirmed that Lee Seung Gi had never been made aware of his music profits and had been receiving insults and threats when he requested settlement details.

In addition, several media outlets raised questions concerning veteran singer Lee Sun Hee‘s relation to Lee Seung Gi’s unfair treatment as she is listed as a director of Hook Entertainment.

On November 25, Hook Entertainment shared their stance on the matters above with the following statement:

"Hello, this is Hook Entertainment.

First of all, we are ashamed and would like to apologize to everyone for the continuous negative news that has been coming out recently as well as the current issue between us and Lee Seung Gi. In particular, we would like to express our apology to Lee Seung Gi who is going through a tough time due to this.

We would also like to bow our heads and apologize to those who were hurt by CEO Kwon Jin Young’s inappropriate words and actions.

As previously mentioned in Hook Entertainment’s press release, we were in the process of securing and organizing accurate data to respond to the certification of contents that we have received from Lee Seung Gi’s legal representative. It is regretful that the media has been reporting information that has not been accurately verified.

When Hook Entertainment and Lee Seung Gi signed an exclusive contract again after originally ending our exclusive contract in 2021, both parties checked all the settlement details from [Lee Seung Gi’s] career, and we settled the financial bond-debt relationship between our company and Lee Seung Gi. Both parties also wrote an agreement confirming such facts.

Nevertheless, following Lee Seung Gi’s request, Hook Entertainment is once again closely reviewing with experts the considerable amount of profit settlement that Hook Entertainment has paid to Lee Seung Gi.

In addition, the recently released report by a certain media outlet regarding the content of Lee Seung Gi and Hook Entertainment’s contract such as profit distribution ratio, etc., as well as the report about Hook Entertainment never paying Lee Seung Gi once for his music revenue are different from the truth.

Currently, we are planning to organize things clearly and to correct and take responsibility for our mistake if there is proven to be any. As a celebrity management company that should have maintained relationships with its artists based on faith and trust, we once again apologize.

In addition, in the case of Lee Sun Hee, because she was an artist that has been with Hook Entertainment since the beginning, she was nominally listed as a director for courtesy, but from 2006 to 2021, Hook Entertainment was a single-person company owned by Kwon Jin Young’s shares 100 percent, and Lee Sun Hee was never involved in the matters of the company’s management or profit distribution.

Along with this, Hook Entertainment is also announcing that we will not tolerate the act of defaming and harming its artists due to speculation regarding this and will take strong legal action through our legal representative.

Thank you."

Source: Soompi