Belift Lab, ILLIT’s agency, stated, “We strongly demand an immediate stop to the groundless attempts to slander our rookie artists with unfounded accusations of plagiarism and now baseless claims regarding greetings. The staff member (manager) responsible for ILLIT’s protocol never made any remarks to ‘ignore’ NewJeans members, and the ILLIT members have never passed by NewJeans members without greeting them.“
They added, “This was confirmed during a CCTV review and investigation of the protocol staff and artists conducted upon the request of Belift Lab on June 13 after NewJeans’ parents raised concerns. The only time the two groups encountered each other was for about five minutes on May 27 at the HYBE headquarters. The CCTV footage shows ILLIT members getting off the elevator and bowing 90 degrees to greet NewJeans member Hanni before they proceeded inside.“
They continued, “After reviewing this footage together with the then-representative Min Hee-jin on August 14, Min’s team claimed that the non-greeting incident happened after this moment and suggested there must be another video. However, the security company explained that additional footage could not be retrieved since the 30-day CCTV storage period had already expired. Min’s side is now claiming that HYBE intentionally deleted the footage.“
Belift Lab emphasized, “Our protocol staff members always use honorific language with the artists, so the claim that someone said ‘ignore her’ is inconsistent with objective facts. Furthermore, even if the footage had been deleted, CCTV does not record audio, so such a claim cannot be valid.“
They added, “From the very beginning of this issue, we have instructed that all artists, including those from other labels, should always behave politely, and we participated sincerely in the investigation. However, despite providing all the requested explanations, new claims that cannot be substantiated with facts have been made. As this issue has now even been addressed during a National Assembly audit, we suspect there may be other intentions behind it.“
Previously, NewJeans raised allegations of workplace bullying at HYBE during an emergency live broadcast last month. Member Hanni claimed that a staff member told an artist to “ignore” her in front of her.
Below is Belift Lab’s full statement:
Hello, this is Belift Lab.
Regarding the article published by Daily Sports on October 7, we would like to clarify our stance.
We strongly demand an immediate stop to the baseless attempts to slander our rookie artists with unfounded claims of plagiarism and now false allegations regarding greetings.
ILLIT’s manager did not make the remark “ignore her” toward NewJeans members. The ILLIT members have also never passed by NewJeans members without greeting them.
This fact was confirmed during a review of the CCTV footage and investigation with the protocol staff and artists conducted after the concerns were raised by NewJeans’ parents on June 13 at the request of Belift Lab. The only time the two groups encountered each other was for about five minutes on May 27 at the HYBE headquarters. The CCTV footage shows ILLIT members getting off the elevator and bowing 90 degrees to greet NewJeans member Hanni before they proceeded inside.
After reviewing this footage together with then-representative Min Hee Jin on August 14, Min’s side newly claimed that the non-greeting incident happened after this moment and suggested there must be another video. However, the security company explained that additional footage could not be retrieved since the 30-day CCTV storage period had already expired. Min’s side now claims that HYBE intentionally deleted the footage.
Our protocol staff members always use honorific language with the artists, so the claim that someone said “ignore her” is inconsistent with objective facts. Furthermore, even if the footage had been deleted, CCTV does not record audio, so such a claim cannot be valid.
From the very beginning of this issue, we have instructed that all artists, including those from other labels, should always behave politely. We participated sincerely in the investigation. However, despite providing all the requested explanations, new claims that cannot be substantiated with facts have been made. As this issue has now even been addressed during a National Assembly audit, we suspect there may be other intentions behind it.
Since this issue was first raised, Belift Lab has been refraining from commenting on the matter in order to protect the staff member, who is in a relatively weaker position compared to well-known artists. However, as unfounded claims continue to be treated as facts, the staff member has expressed extreme frustration and mental distress. By continuously bringing this issue of greetings – a matter traditionally handled with goodwill between different labels – into the public eye, and by persistently making factually inaccurate claims, the real victim in this situation is the powerless protocol staff member.
After this issue was raised, we sent two official responses to ADOR in August and September. After the issue was publicized by NewJeans’ mention of it during a live broadcast, we requested an apology from the member and ADOR but received no reply. If this issue continues to harm the reputation of our company, artists, and staff, we will take all available measures.
[June 13 – NewJeans raises the issue] After receiving the written complaint, Belift Lab conducted face-to-face interviews with the artists and staff, confirming that the alleged remark was unfounded. To ensure clarity, we proactively requested HYBE to review CCTV footage, but since the exact date of the incident was not specified, we reviewed all available footage from May 14 to June 13 based on the movements of the artists within the HYBE building. We found that the only encounter between ILLIT and NewJeans members occurred on May 27, during which ILLIT members bowed 90 degrees to NewJeans members as they entered the styling room.
[June 19 – Shared findings with NewJeans’ side] Based on this investigation, we informed ADOR’s new board members and NewJeans’ parents during an in-person meeting that the Belift Lab staff did not exhibit the behavior or make the remarks alleged by NewJeans.
[August 14 – Joint CCTV review with involved parties] Due to repeated concerns raised by NewJeans, ADOR and Belift Lab agreed to review the footage of the May 27 incident with the consent of both artists. After reviewing the footage, ADOR claimed that the issue occurred after the scene was shown, raising a new concern. However, both parties contacted the security company, which confirmed that the CCTV storage period had already expired, making it impossible to retrieve the footage.
Source: Daum
