Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Recent events in South Korea really drive home just how insignificant entertainment updates can be, and due to the ongoing mourning period, the appropriate dearth of updates out of the news will show as much.
On that heavy note, I did promise you guys I’d catch up on what was missed in the HYBE/ADOR case (which is no longer really a HYBE/ADOR case, but I digress) because obviously it’s still a huge story and I’ve been slacking in post-World Series orgasmic bliss (and being lazy), so here we are.
Let’s go.
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Okay, before all hell broke loose over Thanksgiving with the NewJeans contract termination, there were further lawsuit filings made.
ILLIT‘s Creative Director Serian Heu sued former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin (and other ADOR execs) over the plagiarism row. Min Hee Jin then sued BELIFT LAB CEO Kim Tae Ho, Deputy CEO Choi Yoon Hyuk, Creative Director Heu, and vocal coach Lee Ka Jun for defamation, as well as BELIFT itself. She also filed a criminal complaint against HYBE Chief Public Relations Officer Park Tae Hee and Public Relations Room Leader Cho Sung Hoon on the charges of breach of professional duty, apparently regarding the incident of a recording of HYBE PR downplaying NewJeans’ success.
Lot of lawsuits there … and more to come.
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After Thanksgiving, in early December, Dispatch did an expose on Min Hee Jin. It starts by recapping the disparaging comments she made about NewJeans previously, then moves on to claiming she knew about the live broadcast by the members and spoke through them, publishing texts she made to NewJeans’ family members about it. I think most people figured that was the case, but the texts Dispatch revealed would reportedly confirm it.
Dispatch then speculates that Min Hee Jin knew Hanni would appear at the audit.
“The night before the audit on October 8, 2024, Dispatch caught Hanni visiting Min Hee Jin’s studio. Dispatch claimed that the legal documents wielded in hand by Hanni were likely to be a summons from the officials due to the audit, leading Dispatch to believe that she had a talk with Min Hee Jin the night before the audit.”
Speculative, but also wouldn’t surprise anybody, I think. Thus, the point is likely more to establish a pattern of Min Hee Jin using them to speak herself.
Arguably the most relevant reveal to the court case is the allegation that Min Hee Jin has links to company DAVOLINK through Hyein‘s uncle. This had been speculated before, and Min Hee Jin denied any connection, but Dispatch reports she met with them at the end of September and allegedly has pictures that show as much.
According to Dispatch, B asked A if A could invest around 5 billion KRW, and they reportedly discussed various matters for three hours. Two days after the meeting, on October 2, Davolink announced plans to appoint new directors. However, Min Hee-jin later denied any contact with Davolink. Subsequently, A removed B from the proposed list of directors.
Commenting on the situation, A stated, “They directly came to my house, saying they wanted to meet. And yet they claim there was no contact at all? Their lies caused the stock price to plummet by 50% in a short period. It’s absolutely absurd.”
It’s potentially relevant legally because it brings up suspicions of tampering if it’s shown to be true.
Dispatch close with texts from Min Hee Jin, showing her allegedly trying to use sexual means on a HYBE executive to curry favor.
“I flirted heavily with [redacted] LOL.”
“I made him come closer saying I couldn’t hear him, sitting closer to him.”
“I think I can make him totally fall for me if I just sleep with him once…”
“It’s not that I want to lobby using my body, but if sleeping with him will make things easier, then I can.”
The shaman also comes back into play here, as Dispatch says Min Hee Jin had them cast love spells on 4-5 men in her quest to secure NewJeans.
I guess this is basically revealed in an attempt to discredit Min Hee Jin further, though it struck me a bit weird to use after coming through with a potential tampering connection that could actually be serious and relevant. This is just tabloid fodder, though the shaman returning is a great day for shitposters at least.
In response to this, Min Hee Jin filed charges against former HYBE CEO Park Ji Won and HYBE CPO Park Tae Hee for what basically amounts to illegal privacy violations and manipulation, also charging Dispatch reporters Kim Ji Ho and Park Hye Jin for defamation. Additionally, the NewJeans fandom filed complaints against HYBE, Source Music, and Dispatch for illegally leaking personal information and defamation.
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Later, ADOR’s treatment of NewJeans’ staff came to the forefront, as the group themselves alluded to the company harassing their managers and performance directors. A current ADOR staff member (manager) spoke to the news about that situation.
“They bothered the performance director and other staff with unnecessary, frequent meetings, and bullied them. They asked the managers for their personal phones. They even forced them to stay in the office for more than three hours, not allowing them to go home.”
The manager subsequently filed a workplace harassment complaint against CEO Kim Yoo Jung.
ADOR responded to the allegations by clarifying that the confrontation was actually about a manager trying to bypass the company to negotiate a deal with an advertiser for the group.
“Recently, an employee responsible for artist management directly contacted an advertiser, bypassing the company, and attempted to facilitate a direct contract between the artist and the brand. The manager has admitted to engaging in this communication. This constitutes a serious breach of company policy, as it assists in violating the artist’s exclusive contract.”
They go on to say they weren’t able to gather evidence from the manager’s laptop after it was recovered due to it being formatted, and say they will take legal action.
Apparently, this was regarding Danielle‘s recent ad with OMEGA.
Welcome to the OMEGA family. A radiant debut from Danielle Marsh. The New Constellation sparkles with her signature style. https://t.co/7QPNLaRMEB#OMEGA#Constellation pic.twitter.com/Y3Sf79H8QR
— OMEGA (@omegawatches) December 17, 2024
Following this, the manager responded in the media, talking about their experience being harassed by ADOR and clarifying that they were not trying to bypass the company but were clarifying to brands that NewJeans intended to fulfill their duties. They say ADOR’s stance doesn’t make sense as they directed the funds from the campaign to be put into ADOR’s bank account, proving they just wanted to do their job. The manager has since resigned, citing the treatment they experienced.
Honestly not sure how that works out, but the ad is still up and the company doesn’t seem too care much about the mess. I assume that either thing got hashed out behind the scenes or will only change depending on where the legal stuff falls.
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Speaking of, continuing a recent trend, I don’t have a ton to say here that I haven’t already said, as I’m honestly ready for things to start getting sorted out legally. I think that’s an understandable position given how much of the news updates ARE about filing ever-increasing lawsuits. Not that the public relations stuff isn’t relevant, but it’s safe to say that by now most people are already embedded, and any updates from that perspective are just confirming priors.
Also, honestly it’s probably just fatigue and I’m ready for a new year to start. I would encourage people to be normal in discussing it, but these are consistently some of the least normal threads on the site (including ones that are 99% about dongs and cum), so we all know we’ve crossed the event horizon on that.
