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On November 26, Sports Chosun reported that former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin filed a criminal complaint against HYBE's CPRO, Park Tae-hee, and Public Relations Director, Cho Sung-hoon, for negligence of duty. This follows her November 22 lawsuit against BELIFT LAB's CEO, Kim Tae-ho, and Vice President, Choi Yoon-hyeok, for defamation and obstruction of business, seeking 5 billion KRW (approx. $3.58 million) in damages.
For the unversed, BELIFT LAB's CEO, Kim Tae-ho, also serves as the COO of HYBE.
Meanwhile, Sports Chosun reported that Macoll Consulting Group, the legal firm representing Min Hee-jin, issued a statement on her behalf and said:
"Despite being in a position to promote New Jeans while receiving fees from ADOR as part of HYBE's Shared Service PR organization, these individuals not only failed to fulfill their duties, but also downplayed the results, causing serious damage to ADOR and NewJeans. We hope that they will be given criminal punishment commensurate with their crimes."
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Why did Min Hee-jin sue BELIFT LAB and HYBE with a new lawsuit?
On November 20, 2024, Min Hee-jin announced resigning from HYBE. She also resigned as ADOR's inside director. It is important to note that she fought legally to get re-appointed for the role of ADOR's inside director on October 17, 2024. This was after the HYBE subsidiary label fired her from the CEO position and appointed Kim Joo-young as the new Chief Executive Officer of ADOR.
Meanwhile, her public feud with HYBE started in April 2024, when the parent company accused her of attempting to take over ADOR and NewJeans. For eight months, both parties filed lawsuits against one another where Min Hee-jin claimed that HYBE and ADOR breached her shareholder's contract when they fired her while HYBE accused her of attempting to overthrow management and more.
Additionally, Min Hee-jin locked horns with BELIFT LAB after she accused them of plagiarising ADOR's girl group, NewJeans. She claimed that the label copied NewJeans' choreography and concept to debut their girl group, ILLIT. On November 11, 2024, Hankyoreh Newspaper reported that ILLIT and NewJeans' planning proposals were exact copies of one another with the same design and font.
BELIFT LAB clarified that they did receive the planning proposal of NewJeans which was created by Min Hee-jin, however, it was after ILLIT's proposal was approved and confirmed by all HYBE executives.
"ILLIT's branding strategy and concept were finalized and shared internally on July 21, 2023. The whistleblower sent the so-called 'plan' (to BELIFT LAB) after that, on August 28, 2023, so it could not have influenced ILLIT's concept given the timing."
Following this, on November 22, Kim Tae-ho, the CEO of BELIFT LAB, and other executives filed a criminal lawsuit against the former ADOR CEO under the Information and Communication Network Act, alleging defamation by revealing false information. They also filed a lawsuit for damages of 2 billion KRW (approx. $1.4 million).
In response, the former ADOR CEO sued them for defamation as well and for damages of 5 billion KRW.
In other news, on November 14, 2024, NewJeans demanded HYBE to reinstate Min Hee-jin as ADOR CEO by the end of the month via their certified letter. The letter was signed by all five members: Hanni, Minji, Danielle, Hyein, and Haerin.
