HYBE Released Messages Exposing Min Hee-jin Manipulating NewJeans’ Parents Against It

On May 21st, a media outlet released a conversation containing circumstantial evidence that ADOR’s CEO Min Hee-jin wrote and directly edited the protest letter delivered to HYBE by NewJeans’ parents early last month.
According to the dialogue, Min asked ADOR’s Vice CEO Lee during the review process of NewJeans’ parents’ letter, “You just have to make full use of the fact that (NewJeans) mothers did not sign a contract with HYBE,” adding, “Does the exclusive contract have anything to do with HYBE?” Lee replied, “There is nothing related to HYBE. The parties of the contract are ADOR-Artist.” Min replied, “Haha. Do you have any other provisions to raise objection to?” Min also said, “Did you write it from the mothers’ point of view?” and added, “We should think about the wording.”

In addition, CEO Min was caught trying to manipulate the mothers of NewJeans. During the conversation, CEO Min said, “The mothers should be the ones to report to the Fair Trade Commission. It’s not right for a subsidiary to report it,” and added, “It’s better for the mothers to report it. The mothers’ report itself exposes our innocence. If a subsidiary (ADOR) reports it, it can become a source of dispute over deadly acts.”
In a related development, HYBE believes that CEO Min manipulated NewJeans’ parents’ arguments and opinions to pressure HYBE and delivered them to HYBE and Belief Lab on April 3. At the time of the provisional injunction lawsuit held on May 17th, Kim & Chang, HYBE’s legal representative, said, “CEO Min ordered that NewJeans’ parents should express their dissatisfaction first because violations of contracts between shareholders will become a problem if she or ADOR raises the issue. In other words, she used NewJeans and their parents only to achieve her goal.”
Regarding the validity of the evidence of the messages, Sejong Law, Min Hee-jin’s side, responded, “We are undecided because it was done without the consent of CEO Min Hee-jin and Vice CEO Lee,” and Kim & Chang emphasized, “The audit was legally conducted with the consent of the information (providing) on KakaoTalk, which is conclusive evidence.
Earlier, NewJeans parents sent an e-mail, telling HYBE to “Please take corrective action because the honor and brand value of NewJeans is damaged,” claiming that the concept, styling, and choreography of the girl group ILLIT copy NewJeans.