Hook Entertainment claims to have squared up with singer and actor Lee Seung-gi

Singer and actor Lee Seung-gi (Hook Entertainment)

Hook Entertainment, the former longtime agency of singer and actor Lee Seung-gi, said Friday that it has settled the invoice for Lee’s long overdue payments for digital streams of his songs.

A total of 4.1 billion won ($3.13 million) which includes 2.9 billion won for digital streams of the artist’s songs and 1.2 billion for the arrears of interest has been paid to the artist by the agency.

According to Hook Entertainment, the two parties were not able to come to an agreement on the number of overdue payments as the gap between the amount that Lee Seung-gi had requested and the amount that the agency had summed up was too big.

“Because we don’t want to take this matter for long with our longtime exclusively contracted singer Lee Seung-gi, we have made the overdue payments and filed a lawsuit to confirm there is no existence of debt left,” Hook Entertainment said in a press release.

This comes after the star released an official statement through his legal representation, the law firm Bae, Kim & Lee, on Nov. 24 denouncing the agency for not having once made a payment for his song’s digital streams or downloads on online music platforms but rather insulting the singer by calling him an “unprofitable singer who requests too many things (from the company)."

Lee's legal representative sent certification of contents to the agency that demanded disclosure of payment records and that the exact amount should be made public.

Earlier this month, Lee Seung-gi left his longtime agency Hook Entertainment nullifying their exclusive contract.

Prior to Lee notifying the agency about the nullification of the contract, the CEO of Hook Entertainment Gwon Jin-young admitted to the allegations through a press release.

“I will be fully responsible for the dispute regarding Lee Seung-gi. I will not avoid the responsibilities and use my personal funds to resolve the issue,” her statement said.

Gwon's apology came after a local report revealed the transcript of her call and Lee's manager on Nov. 17 in which she said she would "kill Lee Seung-gi" and use the rest of her life to kill Lee.

Apart from Lee’s case, Hook Entertainment is currently under police investigation and was subject to a search and seizure earlier this month.

The charges against the company have not yet been made public.

Lee debuted with his first LP, “The Dream of a Moth,” on June 5, 2004, under Hook Entertainment, and has since released 137 tracks throughout his musical career spanning two decades, including “Because You’re My Woman” and “Will You Marry Me.”

Meanwhile, Lee Seung-gi is expected to resume his career early next year as a host to the global K-pop idol survival program “Peak Time” produced by local broadcaster JTBC.

By Hong Yoo(yoohong@heraldcorp.com)