Lee Seung-gi's camp fires back at Cha Ga-won over 10.5 billion won jeonse dispute

The legal team representing singer and actor Lee Seung-gi has rebuffed claims by Cha Ga-won, chairman of Piarc Group and head of One Hundred Label, over a dispute involving an exclusive contract and a jeonse — a lump-sum deposit lease — arrangement.

Yoon Yong-seok, an attorney at law firm Hyunmyung representing Lee, said in a statement Thursday that Cha's camp "continues to repeat false claims and distort the core issues." He added that Lee "will detail Cha Ga-won's criminal charges through investigative authorities and hold him strictly accountable."

Yoon said the termination of Lee's exclusive contract stemmed from unsettled payments. He said the two sides had agreed that Cha — as representative of the apartment management association — would cover maintenance fees for the luxury villa where Lee resides until the outstanding balance was paid, with the amount to be offset accordingly. Those fees were repeatedly left unpaid, however, forcing Lee to settle the full amount himself on June 4.

Yoon also said on-site staff wages that had gone unpaid were covered out of Lee's own pocket. He added that loan interest on the jeonse deposit, which Cha claimed to have paid, had from the outset been recorded as a company advance without Lee's consent, meaning Lee ultimately bore that cost as well.

Yoon further said Cha must prioritize fulfilling his obligations as an agency head — including resolving unpaid wages owed to partner businesses such as a dry cleaner, as well as to employees and artists under the agency.

Finally, Yoon said that if Cha denies the jeonse fraud allegation, "all he needs to do is properly return the jeonse deposit when the lease expires — that is simply the landlord's basic obligation."

Lee signed an exclusive contract in 2024 with a label under Cha's entertainment agency One Hundred. Shortly afterward, he moved into La Nuvo 1, a luxury villa in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, built by Piarc Group, and paid a jeonse deposit of 10.5 billion won (approximately $6.9 million) on a property owned by Cha. In an appearance on MBC's "PD Notebook" that aired June 2, Lee's camp said Cha had refused to confirm the deposit amount and then, after Lee had already moved in, demanded a figure more than three times higher than the market price initially discussed. They said Cha told Lee he had arranged the financing himself and would cover the loan interest in full, leaving Lee with no choice but to sign the contract given that he had already relocated. Cha subsequently fell into financial difficulty, failed to keep up with the loan interest payments and even had the property seized after falling behind on taxes. The situation has been widely interpreted as a case of jeonse fraud, leaving Lee uncertain whether he will ever recover the 10.5 billion won deposit.

Cha's camp, however, has maintained that the jeonse deposit for the Hannam-dong villa was set through a legitimate appraisal process and that the contract was drawn up at Lee's request. Cha's side has also claimed that Lee is raising the jeonse fraud allegation as a pretext to exit the exclusive contract.

Cha's camp has separately claimed that Lee was the first to request the 10.5 billion won jeonse arrangement in order to avoid a heavy tax burden as a multi-property owner.

“이승기, 다주택자 세금 폭탄 피하려 ‘105억 전세’ 먼저 요구해” 차가원 측 주장

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