According to legal sources on September 5, the Seoul Central District Court’s Civil Division 20 (Presiding Judge Kim Min Chul) ruled partially in Lee Seung Gi’s favor on August 28 in a lawsuit he filed against Hook Entertainment seeking settlement payments and other damages.
The court ordered Hook Entertainment to pay approximately 690 million won out of the roughly 830 million won Lee Seung Gi had claimed.
Lee Seung Gi previously filed the lawsuit in February, claiming that Hook Entertainment continued to generate revenue from his music and albums even after his exclusive contract with the agency ended in December 2022. He subsequently sought the settlement payments he believed were owed to him.
The settlement dispute between Lee Seung Gi and his former agency has continued since November 2022.
At the time, Lee Seung Gi raised concerns that he had not received proper settlements for music-related revenue and filed criminal complaints against Hook Entertainment CEO Kwon Jin Young and current and former directors, alleging violations of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, including occupational embezzlement and fraud.
Hook Entertainment later paid Lee Seung Gi a total of approximately 5.4 billion won, including around 1.3 billion won in settlement payments that had already been made, as well as unpaid settlements and delayed interest. The agency then filed a lawsuit seeking confirmation that no further debt existed in an attempt to end the settlement dispute, while Lee Seung Gi filed a countersuit demanding additional unpaid settlement payments.
In April last year, the court ruled that Hook Entertainment must pay Lee Seung Gi an additional 580 million won, including advertising fees. Neither side appealed the ruling, making the judgment final.
Sources: Daum
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