HYBE To Sue ADOR & Min Hee-jin For Breach Of Trust After Securing Evidence From The Audit
HYBE revealed the result of their audit on NewJeans's label ADOR and decided to sue the executives, including Min Hee-jin
After conducting an audit regarding ADOR and Min Hee-jin’s attempts to take over management rights on April 22nd, HYBE announced the result on April 25th.
According to the audit result, HYBE confirmed specific facts and secured physical evidence proving ADOR’s plan to take over management rights under the leadership of CEO Min Hee-jin. Based on the data, HYBE plans to file a complaint against the people involved on charges of breach of trust later on the 25th.
HYBE stated, “One of the audit targets also admitted that they submitted information assets containing the takeover plan and contact with outside investors as evidence during the investigation, as well as acknowledged the preparation of documents to attack HYBE for this purpose. According to the face-to-face investigation and transcripts in the submitted information assets, CEO Min Hee-jin instructed ADOR executives to come up with a way to pressure HYBE into selling the stake in ADOR the corporation is holding”.
HYBE continued, “According to Min Hee-jin’s instructions, specific discussions were conducted on how to terminate the artists’ exclusive contracts before they end and how to invalidate the contract between ADOR CEO and HYBE. There were also conversations with messages such as ‘Let’s bring in global funds and make a deal with HYBE’, ‘Just appeal to everything HYBE does critically’, ‘Let’s think of a way to annoy HYBE’, etc. The transcripts included plans to take action such as ‘Preparation for public opinion war in May’, ‘Turn ADOR into an empty shell and take NewJeans away’, etc.”, adding “We also secured statements, such as ‘Ultimately leave HYBE’ written as what ADOR CEO said”.
In addition, HYBE also released a screenshot of a group chat room conversation shared between three ADOR executives, including Min Hee-jin, on April 4th. In the chatroom, ADOR’s vice representative said, “There are other ways”, adding various ideas such as:
“- January 2nd, 2025, put option ?% exercise exit (operating profit of 2023: 33.5 billion/ 2024: ? billion, average pre-tax is ? billion cash out)
– ADOR becomes an empty shell/ proceeding with a lawsuit for infringement of rights against?
– Seeking financial investors (CEO Min + plan to buy ADOR from HYBE)
– Recommend HYBE to sell ADOR
– Sold at a reasonable price
– CEO Min acquires shares of ADOR with money from ADOR executives and cash out + ? new contract. In this case, the ?% left behind that we couldn’t sell in the past becomes useful again.”
In response, Min Hee-jin replied, “Awesome”.
This evidence contradicts Min Hee-jin’s official stance announced through the media and the exclusive interview with Daily Sports on April 22nd. Back then, the CEO insisted that ADOR never made any attempt to take over the management rights, claiming that it was impossible for them to do so because HYBE is still the largest shareholder. In particular, Min Hee-jin criticized ILLIT, a group produced by Chairman Bang Si-hyuk under another label Belift Lab, for copying NewJeans and filed internal accusations. She claimed, “Didn’t FIFTY FIFTY case become a precedent? I don’t do such foolish things”.
Amid the intense internal dispute, NewJeans will continue to carry out their comeback in May as scheduled. The girl group will release a double single in Korea and Japan on May 24th and June 21st, respectively, then hold their fanmeeting at Tokyo Dome on the 26th and 27th of June. NewJeans also plans to release a new album in the second half of this year and launch a world tour in 2025.
HYBE also confirmed that they will do their best to take care of NewJeans members’ psychology for the upcoming comeback and discuss with the members’ legal representatives the ways to protect them.
