HYBE vs Min Hee-jin: NewJeans' agency in conflict with parent ...

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South Korean entertainment conglomerate HYBE shocked the K-pop industry on Monday (Apr 22) when it announced that it was launching an audit on its subsidiary label ADOR and its executives, including CEO Min Hee-jin. 

It alleged that Min, along with her executives, was attempting to seize full control of ADOR by finding ways to get HYBE to sell off its shares in ADOR; HYBE currently owns 80 per cent of ADOR, Min owns 18 per cent, and other ADOR executives own the remaining 2 per cent.

HYBE added that ADOR executives also leaked confidential contracts to attract investors and accused ADOR’s vice president, who used to work in HYBE’s finance department, of feeding insider information about HYBE to ADOR.

As part of the audit, HYBE seized computers from ADOR’s office. It also called for Min’s resignation as CEO of ADOR.

Min later refuted HYBE’s claims in two separate interviews. In her first interview, Min accused HYBE of copying the concept of ADOR’s K-pop group NewJeans through its new girl group Illit. The group debuted on Mar 25 with the song Magnetic which quickly topped music charts in South Korea and became the first K-pop debut song to chart on Billboard’s Hot 100.

Min explained: “BELIFT LAB, one of HYBE’s labels, debuted the five-member female idol group Illit in March of this year. After Illit's teaser photo was released, the response of 'I thought it was NewJeans' flooded the online world. Illit is copying NewJeans in all areas of entertainment, including hair, makeup, costumes, choreography, photography, video and event appearances.”

“The copying of NewJeans by Illit was not done independently by BELIFT LAB. It also involved HYBE. HYBE, a leading company in K-Pop, is blinded by short-term profits and is mass-producing unoriginality by copying successful content without hesitation…ADOR has never permitted anyone to copy NewJeans’ achievements, including HYBE and BELIFT LAB. ADOR does not want NewJeans and Illit to be associated in any way.”

Min also clarified that she had privately raised the plagiarism issue to HYBE and BELIFT LAB but they “did not admit their wrongdoings and were busy making excuses”.

In her second interview, Min claimed that she had never “met with any investor to take over management rights of ADOR”.

“How can I seize management rights with the 18 per cent stake I own? It is impossible for me to seize management rights of ADOR because HYBE owns 80 per cent of the shares. Without consent, it is impossible for ADOR to be independent from HYBE. It is difficult to understand HYBE’s claim.

“HYBE's actions are due to me making an internal complaint, between one month ago to last week. I was suddenly notified of my dismissal when I raised concerns (of Illit’s alleged plagiarism).

“If money was the goal, we would not have raised these issues in the first place. It seems that HYBE has framed it as (ADOR trying to) acquire management rights…It's odd to see articles about the audit without any of the audit’s results. Why was this information rushed out when I complained about something completely unrelated? HYBE seems to have no consideration for the feelings or schedules of its artistes.”

On Apr 23, HYBE revealed that it had discovered internal documents from ADOR detailing ways to get itself released from HYBE. According to South Korean outlet Korea JoongAng Daily, one of the ways involved pressuring HYBE to sell its ADOR shares to private equity firms.

A few hours later, ADOR's vice president addressed the documents in an interview with South Korean publication Yonhap News, saying that the documents were written based on his personal thoughts and were made without the involvement of Min Hee-jin.

"The contents of the documents were not for reporting or sharing. Contrary to their grandiose name 'internal documents', they were not shared with any ADOR member...Private memos that were never put into practice were leaked to HYBE simply because they were stored on a company laptop."