Injunction battle sees claims of Min Hee Jin disrespecting NewJeans & mismanaging sexual harassment complaint, HYBE manipulating album sales & dealing with more plagiarism

So … just a day after I wrote how everybody is seemingly tired of updates on the HYBE/ADOR situation at the moment, of course it’s probably one of the biggest news dump days because Min Hee Jin‘s attempt to get an injunction against the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting at the end of the month was a public affair.

As much stuff to digest as it is, at least we got better insight into what the two sides will actually argue, rather than just stuff for public relations.

Note: I am not doing this everyday if there’s updates everyday, but I’ll recap from time-to-time.

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At the end of yesterday’s salvo, HYBE said they would expose Min Hee Jin in court, “One by one, her lies are being exposed by evidence and facts. We expect everything to be clearly determined by investigative agencies and the courts.“

So here we go.

This is a civil court case regarding a lawsuit by Min Hee Jin against HYBE, requesting that HYBE be barred from using its voting rights at ADOR’s extraordinary shareholders’ meeting. The court will accept evidence and arguments until May 24 and should make a decision before the scheduled meeting on May 31.

Today, both sides were given 30 minutes to make their case, and … man there was a surprising amount of stuff they fit in.

HYBE (1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9)

• HYBE say that MHJ only cares about NewJeans for money, not about the members.
• They claim MHJ has said “it’s hard to treat the members like artists, but I’ve endured it” and that their success is due to her instead of the members. (Update: There’s reportedly a lot more about that.)
• They say MHJ made NewJeans stick to a strict script in interviews, which demonstrated gaslighting behavior towards NewJeans to mold them into a subordinate mother/daughter relationship, eventually using them as a shield.
• They claim she blocked NewJeans’ parents from contacting HYBE execs.
• It’s alleged MHJ contacted an accountant for BTS with the intent of breaking their trust with HYBE and exiting with ADOR.
• HYBE claims MHJ believes her deceased sister speaks to her through shaman, and calls shaman by her sister’s name. Sent 58k texts in last six months to her (KakaoTalk evidence), in which they allege she conspired to take control of ADOR with her, leaked trade secrets, hired an employee the shaman said would serve as her sister by her side, and would judge trainees on the shaman’s advice. Court told them to stick to legal issues at some point during the exchange.
• HYBE says it’s not true they delayed NewJeans, and explained MHJ didn’t care about the debut order of the groups because the timing of NewJeans’ debut was shaman decided. Claim the shaman said they should let Bang Si Hyuk‘s girl groups fail and show up at the end like heroes.
• HYBE say the ILLIT plagiarism allegations are not true, and that promotional method isn’t subject to those kinds of allegations.
• Following a sexual harassment complaint against an ADOR exec in March 2024, they say MHJ made disparaging remarks about women and put pressure on them instead of protecting the alleged victim. They claim she called female employees disparaging terms like gaejummas and femis.
• They explained that MHJ received 100 billion won in comp due to rising stock options before dispute, but she wanted more. HYBE also say they invested a lot into ADOR, including 16 billion won for NewJeans debut, so mistreatment is hard to argue.
• Bang Si Hyuk said in a statement that the multi-label system has problems but nothing can prevent the malicious acts of one person. He believes that freedom of creators is paramount.
• HYBE explains that MHJ’s shareholder contract is subject to termination if she causes 1 billion won in damage, commits breach of trust, or embezzles money, which they say she has done. The court asked for precedent to restrict voting rights, HYBE said there’s no Supreme Court precedent, so they were using literature.
• Court asked HYBE if they believe the burden of proof lies with MHJ to prove she did nothing wrong, and they said they do.
• Regarding alleged inflation of sales, HYBE responded that it was an informal convo and they do not inflate sales on principle.
• On that issue, HYBE claim to have investigated themselves and found that only 0.32% of sales were returned in 2023.
• Explain that the Universal Music Group distribution contract saves on distribution fees, specifically a 5% reduction for ADOR, whose projections are based on unrealized assumed value.
• They say NewJeans benefitted from HYBE’s brand management, and claim Source Music was approached by the overseas brand.
• HYBE claim their investigation found there was no plagiarism of NewJeans by ILLIT, rather it was based on Internet rumors.
• They also explain that there’s no discrimination among promotions between groups.

Min Hee Jin (1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9)

• MHJ claims HYBE broke promises to her (first girl group) and didn’t let her promote NewJeans properly.
• MHJ says Bang Si Hyuk didn’t greet the members, who discussed this in chats among themselves.
• She explains the internal complaint was necessary to defend against infringement and that she never violated any agreement/contract.
• MHJ claims NewJeans themselves wish to continue working for her on future activities, and fans want that as well.
• She says the prospect of her leaving ADOR makes NewJeans and their parents terrified, and that there’s concern of damage, especially after Park Ji Won‘s long vacation remarks to parents.
• She denies using NewJeans’ parents in this mess, explaining that the parents came to her with their concerns.
• MHJ claims she never said she wanted to terminate NewJeans’ contract, and that the KakaoTalk convos were selectively pieced together. Rather the shareholders’ agreement request was for authority to sign new talent and was never about the ability to cancel contracts. Says HYBE knew agreement had a problem, hence the negotiations.
• She says citing shaman management is absurd reason for termination, and that it being revealed was an infringement of privacy. There were convos with the shaman before ADOR was even founded.
• MHJ claims that ILLIT are indeed similar to NewJeans and that experts agree, but concedes it’s legally difficult to prove promotion plagiarism.
• She cites favoritism/sabotage like NewJeans releasing an album and ILLIT going on Knowing Bros despite not promoting the day after, in addition to other media examples.
• She asserts that the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting is a violation of shareholders’ agreement, which had a five-year guarantee with her as CEO. Claim there’s no evidence besides absurd accusations and edited KakaoTalk convos, while explaining that no fiduciary duty went unfulfilled, ADOR never violated articles of incorporation, and that they were more profitable than BELIFT LAB and Source due to her and NewJeans’ connection. She claims the internal complaint is an absurd reason for breach of trust.
• MHJ claims she blew the whistle about plagiarism and album pushing in April, and the response was the audit and management rights dispute allegation.
• She explained that the complaint from April shows she turned down an offer to manipulate first-week sales by boosting them by 100k copies to beat aespa. The alleged process was the company bulk buys albums to boost numbers then returns them, but give retailers deals on fansigns to clear the stock.
• She also states that the tactic of advance buying is used by all labels under HYBE and requested a transparent investigation of advanced purchases because it deceives shareholders, might put NewJeans’ achievements at risk due to association, and HYBE could taint the K-pop market as a whole.
• The complaint additionally said HYBE encouraged labels to find their own partnerships, but locked labels into a 10-year distro deal with UMG, and that there was deception involved since HYBE got distro fees as well. In addition to that, labels work with HYBE on merch, production, and ad contracts.
• She claims HYBE’s brand department favored Source over ADOR when a luxury brand approached NewJeans for a brand deal. She explains LE SSERAFIM approached the brand for a deal afterward, and says HYBE lied to both ADOR and the brand, and only after a complaint did HYBE fulfill their contract and ADOR was refunded three months worth of fees.
• MHJ claims HYBE is currently negotiating payments with overseas producers over LE SSERAFIM plagiarism cases as well.
• Says HYBE has been distracted from managing artists due to expansion with Ithaca Holdings, AI, blockchain, and games, despite them all losing money.

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Yeesh.

The primary significant new allegations and information are: Min Hee Jin disrespecting NewJeans members, Min Hee Jin didn’t react to a sexual harassment report appropriately, the terms of terminating Min Hee Jin per the shareholder agreement being revealed, the claim that all HYBE groups are using advance purchasing to manipulate sales, and the claim that HYBE are paying off plagiarism suits as a part of evidence that HYBE is having trouble effectively managing their labels.

Needless to say, while this is in court, don’t just believe anything because it’s been said.