Actor Lee Jang-woo, embroiled in a 40 million won unpaid bill controversy at a soondae soup restaurant he operates, resolved all issues and returned to YouTube after two weeks.
On the 2nd, Lee Jang-woo mentioned his recent situation and misunderstandings on his YouTube channel "Fat Uncle Lee Jang-woo."
Recently, the soondae soup restaurant operated by Lee Jang-woo was accused of not paying 40 million won for pork offal for eight months. In response, Lee Jang-woo disclosed transfer records and said, "Hoseokchon (the soondae soup restaurant operated by Lee Jang-woo) has already paid the full supply amount to Mujin Co. Ltd., the contracted business partner, for the delivered goods."
Lee Jang-woo also posted a statement on social media, saying, "I ask for your understanding for not providing a detailed explanation since the initial report," and added, "I sincerely apologize and express regret to Mr. A, who suffered from not receiving payment for a long time. Please understand with a generous heart that it took time to thoroughly confirm the facts."
Lee Jang-woo corrected the facts, saying, "Hoseokchon, according to its contract with Mujin Co. Ltd., properly deposited the full payment for the meat supplied by Mr. A to Mujin. This controversy arose because Mujin did not pay the amount it received from Hoseokchon to Mr. A," and explained, "The former representative of Hoseokchon is a friend of mine of 20 years. I believed he would responsibly manage the transaction relationship with Mujin as Hoseokchon's representative. However, I learned for the first time through this report that the former representative concurrently held an auditor position at Mujin and that Mujin had not been paying Mr. A on time."
He added, "It was certainly my shortcoming not to have directly confirmed the overall transaction structure, and I deeply reflect on that. As soon as the supplies to Hoseokchon are confirmed, on the condition that Mujin reimburses Mr. A for the amount, we will resolve the issue by treating the corresponding amount as a loan to Mujin. I will do my best so that Mr. A receives his rightful payment as soon as possible."
Lee Jang-woo said, "I did not start this business lightly or solely to seek profit. The more I do it, the more I bow my head to the efforts and hard work of those in the food service industry and self-employed people. Even though I started with the advantage of being a celebrity for promotion, I painfully realize that running a food business is by no means easy. That makes this controversy feel heavier. Regardless of the scope of legal responsibility, I sincerely feel responsible that people who trusted my name and continued transactions suffered such damage. I will show that I take responsibility until the end to ensure Mr. A's issue is resolved promptly."
Returning to YouTube two weeks after the controversy, Lee Jang-woo said, "I'm not the kind of person who would swindle others' money and run a business like that. What happened was that there was an intermediate distributor and a livestock company. When we received meat from the distributor, we settled immediately," and mentioned the transaction process, "But last September we changed the distributor to another one, and the (transactions) ended in September last year. The meat payments had all been made. But that intermediate distributor's management deteriorated and it couldn't pay the livestock company. That's how those unpaid bills occurred."
He added, "But the livestock company owner misunderstood that I was running that distributor. He thought I had to repay the unpaid bills because I was the operator. He misunderstood that," and said, "I contacted the livestock company owner, and now the distributor and the livestock company have completely cleared up the misunderstanding, and I said I would take moral responsibility for this matter."
In response to comments questioning whether he only lent his name to the soondae soup restaurant for promotion, Lee Jang-woo lamented, "I didn't just lend my name and promote it. I really love food, and I love soondae soup so much that I wanted to open a soondae soup restaurant."
Lee Jang-woo said, "Now I participate in menu development and recipe development, but doing only that doesn't mean I can run the shop. For interior design, staff management, and overall setup, I received help from experts," and added, "One of my childhood friends ran a butcher shop for a long time. He is a meat expert, so that friend served as the representative." Lee Jang-woo expressed his grievance, saying, "It's not that I just put my face on it and stepped back; there are experts, and I do menu development. And it's absolutely not that I fiddled with the accounting or just put a neighborhood friend in charge."
Finally, Lee Jang-woo emphasized, "This incident made me think a lot. I am sincere about food, but it seems that wasn't communicated well. From now on, I feel the need to pay more attention to my surroundings and approach food more maturely. I am preparing to show a more mature, well-aged version of Lee Jang-woo."
[photo] OSEN DB, YouTube capture
[OSEN]