Min Hee-jin, the CEO of ADOR, the K-pop agency behind NewJeans, has denied claims made against her by entertainment giant HYBE in a new press conference today (April 25).
Earlier today, ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin held an over two-hour-long press conference in Seoul, South Korea, where she addressed claims made by HYBE. The entertainment giant is notably the majority shareholder of the K-pop agency that birthed popular girl group NewJeans.
Speaking to South Korean press, as reported by Korea JoongAng Daily, the music executive said that she “was not expecting” the audit of ADOR launched by HYBE on Monday (April 22), claiming that she had initially made an “internal report [about the similarities between NewJeans and Belift Lab group ILLIT]” in hopes of it being “addressed formally by the company”.
“My goal has always been to [do] my work in a clean, confident way. That’s been my focus and it’s been difficult for me to talk about the things that interfered with my work,” Min added, while refuting HYBE’s claims that she tried to “hijack control” of ADOR. “As an employee, you complain about your job and your boss,” she said. “I’m not interested in taking control.”
Min then addressed the alleged evidence of plans to take ownership of ADOR, claiming that the “conversations have been rid of the context of where they came from”. The CEO’s lawyers also touched on HYBE’s announcement to file a breach of trust complaint against Min, saying that “there was no incident where Min tried to diminish the company value” and that “you cannot ‘plot’ to breach the trust. This just doesn’t count as that”.
Later, the ADOR CEO recalled the circumstances that led her to join HYBE (then Big Hit Entertainment) and how she believes the company “used me to the fullest and now wants to take me down because I don’t listen to them”. She added: “It’s not me that turned my back on HYBE, it’s HYBE that betrayed me.”
She then claimed that she HYBE founder Bang Si-hyuk “wouldn’t let me [establish ADOR and launch NewJeans] unless the company held a 100 per cent stake”, but that she allegedly relented because “a fight would’ve taken months”. Min also alleged that members of the HYBE team had told her “not to promote NewJeans before LE SSERAFIM’s debut, because they wanted people to think that LE SSERAFIM was Min Hee-jin’s girl group”.
Notably, NewJeans released their first single ‘Attention’ in July 2022, and had only teased their debut just weeks before. LE SSERAFIM, on the other hand, debuted in May 2022 with the mini-album ‘Fearless’. “They never let me promote NewJeans as the first girl group from Min Hee-jin because they intentionally wanted to confuse people,” the ADOR CEO claimed. “That was all Bang Si-hyuk’s doing.”
During the press conference Min Hee-Jin also questioned the motivation of HYBE, asking: “Does HYBE really care about NewJeans? NewJeans releases something tomorrow, and they do this?” She also claimed that NewJeans would be “nothing planned” without her, while claiming that “HYBE is acting like it doesn’t care”.
“The reason I came forward today is because NewJeans content comes out tomorrow. I knew that if I didn’t say anything today then people would talk badly about them tomorrow,” she said. “I don’t even care if someone else owns the company. All I’m asking is that they leave us alone.”
According to The Korea Herald, HYBE filed a complaint with the Yongsan Police Station against Min and ADOR’s vice president for breach of trust shortly after the press conference. The entertainment giant also reportedly claimed that Min had “manipulated the truth” during the press conference and asked for her to resign as CEO.
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