Former Kakao CEO Im Ji-hoon (임지훈) said on Tuesday he has filed a lawsuit against Kakao Ventures and Kakao founder Kim Bum-soo over a performance fee contract for the "Kakao Youth Startup Fund."

Im said on his social media account that he filed the suit the previous day.

The dispute concerns performance fees from a fund Im managed at K Cube Ventures, now Kakao Ventures, before he became Kakao CEO. Im said the claim is unrelated to the management performance bonus from his time as Kakao CEO.

According to Im, the Kakao Youth Startup Fund was structured so that Kakao Ventures, as the manager, would receive performance fees if investment results exceeded certain criteria, and part of that would be distributed to the people who ran the fund.

Im said that when he signed a contract with K Cube Ventures in January 2015, he set his "priority allocation" share, meaning the portion of performance fees he would receive, at 60 percent. He became Kakao CEO in September that year at Kim's request.

Im claimed that around November that year, Kim asked to reduce Im's share from the fund because Im had become Kakao CEO. Im said that after meeting with Kim, the priority allocation was cut from 60 percent to 22 percent and he also signed the amended contract. Im said he did not first propose the 22 percent figure.

Im also claimed that when he stepped down as Kakao CEO in 2018, he had the contract terms confirmed again.

Im said Kakao Ventures confirmed through a written statement bearing the company seal that, in exchange for lowering the priority allocation to 22 percent, it would pay him all performance fees calculated for him regardless of how long he worked as Kakao CEO. Im said the "100 percent of performance fees" mentioned there meant the full 22 percent portion allocated to him.

Im claimed he also met with Kim during the process to finalise the statement's contents, and received the sealed statement from a Kakao group vice president in charge of human resources.

The Kakao Youth Startup Fund was liquidated in July. Im said he later asked Kakao Ventures whether it had an obligation to pay the performance fees under the contract, but the company responded last month in an official letter, saying, "After reviewing the relevant contracts and other materials, there is no basis for payment."

Im said the decision to cut his share from 60 percent to 22 percent was not made at his own behest. He said Kim decided on the adjustment, a Kakao group vice president in charge of human resources delivered the amended contract, and Kakao Ventures entered into the contract. He also stressed that Kakao Ventures later reaffirmed the contract terms through a written statement bearing its corporate seal.

Im said, "Responsibility for fulfilling a contract lies with the company that presented and drafted that contract," adding, "What I am asking for is not new compensation. I am asking for an already signed contract to be honoured as it is."