Actor Lee Jang-woo spoke out directly about the controversy that he failed to pay for food ingredients at the sundae soup restaurant he runs.
On the 2nd, Lee posted a video titled "I will address the recent controversy" on his YouTube channel, saying, "I am not the kind of person brazen enough to run a business by stiffing someone out of their money," and explained, "We paid the bill to a middle distributor, but due to that distributor's worsening business, the payment was not passed on to the livestock company, which caused the outstanding balance."
Lee was previously embroiled in allegations that the sundae soup restaurant he was involved in operating failed to pay about 40 million won for pork offal deliveries for eight months.
However, Lee explained that the sundae soup restaurant paid the bill to the distributor and that the distributor did not pass on the pork offal delivery payment. Lee said, "There is a middle distributor, and there is a livestock company," adding, "We received the meat through the distributor and paid the bill each time."
He added, "There was a part where the livestock company misunderstood me as the operator of the distributor," and "We have now cleared up all misunderstandings, and all outstanding balances have been settled."
Regarding the suspicion that he was not involved in operating the sundae soup restaurant, he said, "I really love food, and among them I love sundae soup so much that I really wanted to run a sundae soup restaurant," adding, "I participated in menu development and recipe development, and for the overall setup including interior and staff management, I received a lot of help from experts."
Lastly, he said, "This incident made me think a lot," adding, "I am truly sincere about food, but it seems that did not come across properly. From now on, I felt the need to be mindful of those around me and to approach food more maturely."