Law: "Settlement must be proven by Seunggi Lee's side" Will it be revealed after 20 years? [★FOCUS]

The 20th Civil Affairs Department (Agreement) (Da) of the Seoul Central District Court held the 5th oral argument date for the debt non-existence confirmation lawsuit filed by Hook Entertainment (Hook) against Lee Seung-gi on the 19th. The legal teams for both sides were present at the scene that day.

On that day, the court stated regarding the settlement details received through the preparatory statement, "We need to confirm the basis on which they were prepared," and said that they would need to confirm the original settlement details, which are the main cause of this lawsuit, in order to compare them with the claims of both sides.

Lee Seung-gi's attorney argued, "In fact, the objective data must be with Hook's side," and "It hasn't been easy to even make a single proper settlement for 20 years." Regarding Hook's attorney's claim that the statute of limitations has passed for data from before a certain point in time and that they do not have it, he said, "They have not revealed the specific circumstances as to why they do not have it. We will also explain the cause of the claim based on the data that we basically have."

Lee Seung Gi's side also claimed that the concert profits were not properly settled, emphasizing, "According to the exclusive contract, settlement should have been made according to a certain percentage for the announced sales and expenses for the concert portion, but Hook only said that they gave us the amount, and not only is there no basis for the ledger for each account, but the expenses claimed by Hook are not the proper costs." Hook's side countered, "Settlement related to the concert is a separate issue."

The court, upon hearing this, said, "It seems that Hook gave 80 million won without any distribution of income. Lee Seung-gi, who needs to settle this, should make a request regarding the relevant details."

Lee Seung-gi's side also claimed, "The fact that we received the settlement data was actually a result of Hook's deception because the settlement had never been made, and after this dispute broke out, we received it from an employee in charge of accounting on Hook's side." They also claimed, "Hook has not submitted any written submissions regarding music-related matters."

In November 2022, Lee Seung-gi sent a certified letter to Hook, where he had been for 18 years, demanding settlement of unsettled profits, claiming that he had not received a single penny in music royalties since his debut. Afterwards, Hook sent Lee Seung-gi 5.4 billion won in settlement money in December 2022 under the pretext of unpaid settlement money and late interest, but Lee Seung-gi did not accept it and took the case to court.

Hook, who filed the lawsuit, claims that Lee Seung-gi paid more than the actual amount of advertising activity settlement and that he should receive 900 million won in return. When he filed the lawsuit, Hook claimed that Lee Seung-gi had no debt, but changed this. On the other hand, Lee Seung-gi's side is countering that he should receive 3 billion won more from Hook.

After that, Lee Seung Gi appeared in person on the second trial date and read the petition, saying, "We were together from our teens to our 30s. I'm touched by the thought that if he had been honest and accounted for the existence and settlement of music royalties, this wouldn't have happened. I wanted to talk about how an entertainer with the same level of experience and a name that is this well-known did not know about these obvious rights for 20 years." He also claimed, "Kwon Jin Young said, 'I could raise anyone I picked up off the street better than you.' Since my debut, Kwon Jin Young found it extremely unpleasant to talk about money-related issues like appearance fees or contract fees. He got very angry and branded me a bad person who was only interested in money."

Lee Seung-gi emphasized that he first learned of the existence of music royalties in 2021, and added, "I feel greatly betrayed by the company I trusted and CEO Kwon Jin-young who have been deceiving me for a long time. I hope that this will never happen again and that no one like me will be a victim, and I have gained great courage. I hope that through this incident, no more junior celebrities who debuted at a young age like me will suffer similar disadvantages."

Hook admitted that he had not done so at all despite having to keep separate accounting books for each celebrity under his management according to the Popular Culture and Arts Industry Development Act enacted in 2014. The court requested that Hook's side put all accounting data related to Lee Seung-gi since 2004 on a USB and submit it to Lee Seung-gi's side and the court.

Meanwhile, at the end of the trial that day, Lee Seung-gi's side requested that the court bring forward the conclusion, saying, "The facts that led to this dispute started 20 years ago," when the court tried to set the next date a little later. The court also said that they needed the original settlement details, and that they would have to use the exclusive contract as a basis for determining the right and wrong of both parties' interpretations of the original, emphasizing that, "Lee Seung-gi's side will have to prove the settlement."

https://m.entertain.naver.com/article/108/0003252022