ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin denied the allegations against her, saying she would face “unfair treatment.”
On April 22, HYBE requested an audit of ADOR and requested the resignation of Min Hee Jin. The CEO of ADOR is accused of having notably wanted to force HYBE to sell her its shares to separate ADOR from HYBE, but also of having obtained confidential information on artists from other HYBE labels to spread rumors about them.
Following this, Min Hee Jin then gave an interview to a media to explain the reasons for her open war against HYBE, and announced in particular that ILLIT would have plagiarized NewJeans and that HYBE would be blinded by money.
From, ADOR and Min Hee Jin released a long statement against HYBE and Bang Si Hyuk to express their position.
This April 25, Min Hee Jin then held a press conference to defend her position. During this conference, Min Hee Jin notably revealed exchanges of messages with Bang Si Hyuk, and in which Bang Si Hyuk talks about crushing aespa, the girl group of SM Entertainment, but she also claimed that HYBE had asked her to lying to make people believe that LE SSERAFIM was his girlgroup, and that he had been forbidden to promote NewJeans before LE SSERAFIM.
Find a summary of the points from the press conference below.
Min Hee Jin expressed:
“I feel like they all want me to die.” If I die suddenly, will everyone be happy? That’s honestly what I think. I don’t read all the articles and comments. If I do, I can’t live. I wonder if anyone can handle that much distress in a short period of time. Is this what celebrities feel? I am also human and it is not confirmed that I am guilty. I think I’m innocent. »
She also shared:
“It makes no sense to say that I stole the management rights for money. I already have shares and have received a lot that I cannot disclose. But the various points revealed by HYBE now are all advantageous to them. The points listed in detail are all wrong from my point of view. »
She also claimed to have never said: “BTS stole my ideas”but expresses that HYBE lets people think that to give a bad image of her.
Min Hee Jin also expressed that the members of NewJeans were recruited during an audition for “HYBE’s first girl group”, but was then prohibited from promoting the girls and the group before LE SSERAFIM’s debut. This is also when he was asked to lie to manipulate public opinion and make people believe that LE SSERAFIM was his girlgroup.
According to Min Hee Jin, Bang Si Hyuk did not trust NewJeans, which is why he recruited Kim Chaewon and Miyawaki Sakura to integrate them into Min Hee Jin’s group, except that Min Hee Jin had already finalized the members of NewJeans to get them started, and that she did not want to disrupt the girls’ years of work to sacrifice some of them and prevent them from starting.
This is how – according to her – she ended up at the head of ADOR, taking the members of NewJeans with her, and how Source Music belatedly recruited all the members of LE SSERAFIM to start the group.
Min Hee Jin also expressed that she had never sought to seize the management rights of ADOR:
“I am an employed CEO. I don’t know why a salaried CEO works so hard and becomes the target. »
Regarding the filing of a complaint by HYBE for breach of trust, it revealed:
“It can’t really be a breach of trust. I didn’t betray HYBE, but HYBE betrayed me. I feel like they are trying to trick me into suppressing me. »
She revealed messages exchanged with Bang Si Hyuk, including those mentioning aespa, and expressed that HYBE leaves very little freedom to its agencies. According to her, HYBE would be bothered by its way of doing things and would prefer other agencies which are more easily controllable. She describes HYBE’s other labels as companies that are just trying to be “the favorite child” in HYBE’s eyes.
She then said:
“No one has achieved anything like this in the 30-year history of the entertainment industry, in just two years since NewJeans was founded. I think it’s a betrayal to try to remove the CEO of a subsidiary that is doing well and helping shareholders. What sin have I committed? I think I only have the sin of doing a good job. »
Regarding the members of NewJeans, Min Hee Jin revealed:
“NewJeans members called me at night and cried for 20 minutes. They said they felt sorry for me and cried a lot. The members’ mothers also said that public opinion was wrong, so they told me to say everything. I don’t have to deal with NewJeans anymore. I have no such desire. What to do with NewJeans? It is not like that. But NewJeans really looks like my child, so I feel that way. It’s so sad to leave my kids at HYBE and move on. »
Finally, Min Hee Jin said:
“If I wanted money, I wouldn’t have filed internal charges. I can earn at least 100 billion won (about 75 million euros) just by sitting around. But I can’t stand to see what I don’t like, so I have to talk about it. This is why I suffer. »
