Lee Seung-gi Appears in Court to Read Petition
Court Orders "Hook" to Submit All Settlement Documents
Singer and actor Lee Seung-gi, who is continuing a legal battle with his former agency, expressed his feelings, saying, "I feel an immense sense of betrayal that the company and its CEO, whom I trusted, have deceived me for a long time."
On the 25th, Yonhap News reported that Lee Seung-gi personally appeared at the civil lawsuit hearing against his former agency Hook Entertainment held by the Civil Division 20 of the Seoul Central District Court the previous day and made these remarks. On that day, Lee Seung-gi read a petition himself.
Lee Seung-gi and his former agency have been in court since 2022 over conflicts regarding settlement payments. That day was the second hearing of the lawsuit filed by Hook seeking confirmation of non-existence of debt. Lee Seung-gi continued, "I hope such incidents never happen again and that no one else suffers the same harm as I did." He claimed, "From the beginning, CEO Kwon Jin-young of Hook Entertainment would get very angry whenever I mentioned money issues and labeled me as a bad person who only cared about money. He exploited the fact that I was a minor and inexperienced in society to subject me to verbal abuse and physical violence. Only now have I realized that this was gaslighting."
Lee Seung-gi revealed that CEO Kwon lowered his self-esteem by saying, "I think I could raise anyone off the street better than you." He also said that when he first learned about the existence of music royalties around 2021, CEO Kwon told him, "You are a 'minus singer,' so how could I possibly pay you? I didn’t tell you this to protect your pride."
Lee Seung-gi debuted in 2004 as a high school student and worked with Hook until their split in 2022 after 18 years due to settlement payment issues. Afterward, he worked under a one-person agency and this year joined a new agency, Big Planet Made Entertainment. The court ordered Hook to submit all settlement-related documents concerning Lee Seung-gi from his debut year, 2004, on a USB memory device to both Lee Seung-gi’s side and the court.
Regarding this, Lee’s new agency Big Planet Made Entertainment explained, "Until now, Hook had refused to submit documents citing trade secrets and other reasons, but the court’s order to submit the original data without redactions has brought a new phase." They also stated, "According to the Popular Culture and Arts Industry Act enacted in 2014, all agencies must keep separate accounting books for each affiliated artist, but Hook admitted in court that they did not even do this." Big Planet Made Entertainment added, "We will provide strong support in the fight to ensure that juniors like Lee Seung-gi, who have suffered gaslighting as a 'minus singer' from CEO Kwon Jin-young of Hook for the past 20 years, never experience the same."
Lee said, "I hope that through this case, junior entertainers who debuted at a young age like me will not suffer similar disadvantages." He also stated that he plans to donate all unpaid settlement money he will receive through the lawsuit. Previously, he announced that he would donate the 5 billion KRW in unpaid settlement money that Hook unilaterally settled and transferred in 2022, and he has made large donations to Seoul National University Children’s Hospital starting with 2 billion KRW, as well as to the Korean Red Cross and KAIST.
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