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Megathread 13: HYBE / ADOR / MHJ – Min Hee Jin injunction court hearing & ADOR shareholders’ meeting ahead, NewJeans/parents vs. Belift Lab, and More


This megathread is about the ongoing dispute within HYBE and the management of sub-label ADOR.

DO NOT make new posts related to this story to the subreddit. If you have new information/articles, add them to the comments below so they can be integrated into the main post.

THIS POST MAY BE LOCKED OR UNLOCKED AT VARYING TIMES based on what the moderators are able to manage during their shifts. Please be patient with us while we work to balance keeping up with the queue and our own lives.

DISCLAIMER ABOUT SOURCES: We prefer to focus on official statements from companies or other vetted sources. There will be widespread speculation and rumor-heavy articles, but until presented in an official capacity we consider them unsubstantiated. As Mods, all we can do is compile and summarize, but we are not investigators or journalists.

Summary of Previous Megathreads

  • ONE and TWO and THREE contains HYBE's audit of ADOR and Min Hee Jin's 1st press conference.

  • FOUR summarized all events up to April 30th, 2024.

  • FIVE and SIX contains potential ADOR embezzlement, MHJ's injunction and hearing, and a letter from the parents of NewJeans.

  • SEVEN and EIGHT and NINE contains MHJ's injunction granted May 30th and remaining ADOR CEO, HYBE replacing ADOR board members, BELIFT LAB's video regarding plagiarism and lawsuit against MHJ.

MEGATHREAD TEN spanned mid-June to mid-August, but didn't get updated past late July.

  • Contains: Police questioning of ADOR officials and MHJ, British band Shakatak's plagiarism claims against NewJeans' 'Bubble Gum', Dispatch's report about the formation of NewJeans, SOURCE Music and MHJ announcing complaints against each other, Lee Jae Sang replacing Park Ji Won as HYBE CEO, and KakaoTalk chats involving MHJ and ADOR employees including more detail related to an internal sexual harassment case where MHJ disparaged the alleged victim.

MEGATHREAD ELEVEN covered everything from the end of July through the first half of September.

  • Contains: Further exposure of former ADOR Employee B's sexual harassment case with statements and social media posts from both her and MHJ, HYBE 2.0 announcement, ADOR replacing MHJ with Kim Joo Young as the new CEO on August 27th, ADOR's restructuring plans to separate management and production, Director Shin Wooseok's social media posts about NewJeans videos being taken down and ADOR's rebuttals, and NewJeans members holding a livestream with their complaints and demands of HYBE to reinstate MHJ as CEO.

MEGATHREAD TWELVE covered the second half of September.

  • Contains: Min Hee Jin's new injunction filing, NewJeans members and parents' meeting with new ADOR CEO, ADOR shareholders' meeting scheduled for October, and MHJ's interview with JoongAng Ilbo and lecture at the Hyundai Card culture-fest event.

Articles / Timeline

241004

241007

  • Mothers of NewJeans were interviewed by Ilgan Sports and made statements regarding the alleged 'hallway ignoring incident', the status of CCTV footage of it, as well as dynamics with the new ADOR CEO, among other issues. (Source: Ilgan Sports)

  • It appears there is confirmation that Employee B was summoned by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on September 26th as part of the investigation into the sexual harassment complaint. They will be reviewing what occurred during HYBE/ADOR's internal investigations and consider the need to summon Min Hee Jin next. (Source: No Cut News)

  • Belift Lab made a statement counter to the earlier Ilgan Sports report. The agency claimed ILLIT's manager never told members to ignore NewJeans and that ILLIT didn't pass by without greeting NewJeans members. This was confirmed from their investigation and review of CCTV on June 13th after NewJeans' parents expressed concern. A small timeline of events is provided. (Source: SPOTV News)

  • The Korea Times: ILLIT's management agency denies bullying allegations raised by NewJeans

Looking ahead:

  • Oct. 11 – MHJ Injunction court hearing RE: reinstatement
  • Oct. 17 – ADOR shareholders' meeting to potentially extend MHJ's position as board member

Ongoing Legal Complaints/Investigations:

  • HYBE's report to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) regarding potential insider trading by ADOR management (Korea JoongAng)

  • HYBE's complaint against Min Hee Jin for 'breach of trust' (Yonhap)

  • Belift Lab's complaint against Min Hee Jin for defamation (Soompi) and additionally for business interference (The Korea Herald)

  • SOURCE MUSIC's lawsuit against Min Hee Jin for damages in regards to the disruption of business/defamation of LE SSERAFIM (Korea JoongAng) and additionally regarding alleged false claims by MHJ for the launch strategy of N Team/NewJeans (Soompi)

  • British band Shakatak's plagiarism claim against NewJeans' 'Bubble Gum' (Yonhap)

  • Min Hee Jin and HYBE executives filed reports against each other back-to-back (Here and Here)

  • Former ADOR Employee 'B' filed complaint against MHJ in relation to sexual harassment cover-up and workplace mistreatment. (JTBC)

  • Other Legal Action statements: SOURCE MUSIC on behalf of LE SSERAFIM, BIGHIT MUSIC on behalf of BTS, and ADOR on behalf of NewJeans.

Link back to MEGATHREADS 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12

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by KPOP_MOD

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36 Comments

  1. alleybetwixt on

    13 seems appropriate for October.

    Locked for a few minutes!

    Edit: Open!

    Suspecting things might get pretty nuts again for the hearing/meeting in the near future. Please be patient with us if we need to lock down at times. đŸ™‡â€â™€ïž

  4. deirdos on

    Interesting how the NewJeans mothers’ interview coincided with ILLIT’s comeback gaining steam.

    All of this feels so.. Mean Girl-esque. At this point, I wish HYBE would just let go of NewJeans to prevent further hate attacks against other groups under their umbrella.

  6. KazVanilla on

    > hallway ignoring incident

    > “The two groups only encountered each other briefly on May 27, when they were in the same area for about five minutes at HYBE headquarters,” Belift Lab explained. “The CCTV footage shows ILLIT members bowing at a 90-degree angle to NewJeans member Hanni as they exited the elevator.”

    wait til the Min Team finds out about the lack of eye contact and interaction between idols at award ceremonies, music shows and even between groups in the same company 😭

    I feel like a 90 degree bow is MORE THAN ENOUGH of an acknowledgment of Hanni’s existence in the context of how short they were in the vicinity for
.

    bow too much or not bow enough.. pick a struggle

  7. sinkooks on

    it’s been over 24 hours since belift straight up called hanni a liar, im a bit confused as to why she or anyone from That side hasn’t released statements to refute belift’s claims yet. belift had a response ready to go just hours after the article was published, what’s taking the other party so long considering they’re the ones that are being viewed as truthful by the majority?

  8. butterflies2185 on

    *slightly unrelated* but does anyone know if jeff benjamin has a) said anything about the best friends thing and b) said anything about employee b reaching out to him?

  10. Immediate_Lychee_372 on

    I’m praying if this situation even ends that the girls can recover and be safe. I’m reminded of the fifty fifty situation where yes the girls are adults but are manipulated by everyone making the wrong decisions and in the end they had it the worse whereas the actually trouble makers get off Scott free. I hope the girls realize what’s happening and distant themself from mhj. Even if they don’t support hybe atleast they can get away from mhj. That woman will probably discard them when they have no more use to her

  11. gotfangirl6 on

    I assume these mothers must think that they are helping their daughters’ cause, whatever that cause might be. I’m wondering if it actually *is* helping. Are their interviews really swaying public opinion?

  12. KazVanilla on

    Imagine if you were either party and came across the other party
.. it would be extremely awkward and I don’t blame either for not being 100% welcoming, having the ‘correct’ body language or it to be completely silent.

    But then having someone call you out for your lack of attention to them when EVERYONE knows what’s happening between them like leave the girls alone PLEAAASSEEE đŸ«„

  13. nikitaloss on

    I saw some comments from bunnies claiming that the current CEO of ador is guilty for employee B because she was the one that covered up the SA for MHJ because she was the one in charge of HR at the time. So to them, MHJ is not guilty and shouldn’t be summoned, it’s the new CEO. How likely was the current CEO involved?

  14. Kzathenerd on

    Also have people saw hybe said the committee didnt send the new ador ceo any invitation to come to the audit?? Doesnt it sound weird???

  15. Tuon_Cauthon on

    It’s sad to see that MHJ and newjeans are still bullying Illit. The remaining sympathy I had for newjeans is gone atp.

    Personally, I’m waiting for the conclusion of the injunction. Everything else is just a bunch of distraction tactics. Isn’t this whole situation about MHJ being accused of conspiring to poach Ador leading to her removal as CEO.

  18. Puzzled_Taste8401 on

    If the rumours are to be believed that MHJ is setting things up with BANA and the girls are slowly moving over then I must say this would have been the most anticlimactic drama.

    For the innocent artists and employees that have been affected by this, it would be a shame for MHJ to just get what she wanted all along with zero consequences and for the members to naively move through life without realising how toxic this whole thing has been.

    I hope I’m wrong but hybe seems to be all bark and no bite.

  20. 2Skoned on

    The thing that I really can’t wrap my head around in regards to this whole ‘bullying’ situation, is this idea that even if its true Hanni is somehow surprised that ILLIT would not want anything to do with her after everything that’s gone down this year.

    The NewJeans girls have aggressively defended and made their love for MHJ known at every opportunity possible all while MHJ has publicly tried to ruin ILLIT’s reputation. Why would anyone in ILLIT or any of their managers be nice to people who are publicly allying themselves with their biggest enemy. Are the NJ girl’s that unaware of whats going on or do they just think they shouldn’t face any consequences for the things they’re doing and saying. I actually don’t get it, if I’m Hanni why would I expect ILLIT to be nice to me, its insane. MHJ is actively trying to ruin HYBE’s reputation and the reputation of multiple artists from the company, its extremely normal for people who work for HYBE and value their job to not want to be associated with people who can’t stop talking about how great MHJ is.

  23. ElkLazy9338 on

    I hate to discuss about this since I don’t see it like a big deal as MHJ side are making it to be but I feel like it’s something missing because of the lack of details by Hanni’s part.

    First the incident didn’t happen recently, it happened months ago. But let’s ignore that part, according to Hanni there were two meetings, one where everything went well and everyone greeted each other and a second meeting when illit were coming back (to the hallway?) and that’s when Hanni heard “ignore her” comment.

    The manager seems to have no problem with illit members greeting her like it happened in the first meeting so in what context “ignore her” comment was said? Were they passing by and the manager said that suddenly? were illit members gonna greet her again or speak to her and that’s when the manager said it? were illit members talking to each other and hanni simply overheard the conversation and she thought they were talking about her?

    So many questions.. and it’s hard to tell if the “ignore her” (if that’s what manager actually said) was about her or not since hanni didn’t tell the story with much details so the rest of it must be assumed by us.

    My personal guess is, considering neither belift nor hanni mentioned a second interaction, illit were simply passing by and Hanni overheard that comment and she thought it was about her. It’d be ironic if it turns out Hanni misheard and the manager never said that comment or it wasn’t about her.

  25. Mylittletv on

    This fiasco highlights Hybe’s ineptitude. Their reaction/response is too tepid.
    All kinds of insults, lies, bullying etc are being hurled at Hybe and it’s artists by mhj and her stans and you hear not a pip from Hybe.

  26. bananamilkandbanchan on

    reading the mothers’ interview and the belift response, I was strongly reminded of [The Missing Missing Reasons](https://www.issendai.com/psychology/estrangement/missing-missing-reasons.html). the whole thing is worth a read (it’s pretty short), but here are some quotes:

    >Members of estranged parents’ forums often say their children never gave them any reason for the estrangement, then turn around and reveal that their children did tell them why. But the reasons their children give—the infamous missing reasons—are missing.

    >In the same vein, members who confront their estranged children report that their children “screamed at them” or “used such foul language that I was shocked,” but don’t repeat anything their children said.

    >When members do say what the allegations were, they paraphrase heavily, choosing the most trivial offenses and trimming away all context. Elizabeth Vagnioni said her son accused her of not being part of his child’s birth, even though he hadn’t told her he was having a child. The accusation is stripped of all seriousness because it’s so bizarre, an impression created by the total lack of context.

    >Anything tinged with negative emotion, anything that makes them feel bad about themselves, shocks them so deeply that they block it out.

    >Posts in estranged parents’ forums are vague. Members recount stories with the fewest possible details, the least possible context. They don’t recreate entire scenes, repeat entire conversations, give entire text exchanges; they paraphrase hours of conversation away. The only element they describe in detail is their own grief or rage. Nor do the other members press them for more information.

    >Compare this with the forums for adult children of abusers, where the members not only cut-and-paste email exchanges into their posts, they take photos of handwritten letters and screenshot text conversations. They recreate scenes in detail, and if the details don’t add up, the other members question them about it. They get annoyed when a member’s paraphrase changes the meaning of a sentence, or when omitted details change the meaning of a meeting. They care about precision, context, and history.

    >The difference isn’t a matter of style, it’s a split between two ways of perceiving the world. In one worldview, emotion is king. Details exist to support emotion. If a member gives one set of details to describe how angry she is about a past event, and a few days later gives a contradictory set of details to describe how sad she is about the same event, both versions are legitimate because both emotions are legitimate.

    >The first viewpoint, “emotion creates reality,” is truth for a great many people. Not a healthy truth, not a truth that promotes good relationships, but a deep, lived truth nonetheless. It’s seductive. It means that whatever you’re feeling is just and right, that you’re never in the wrong unless you feel you’re in the wrong. For people whose self-image is so battered and fragile that they can’t bear anything but validation, often it feels like the only way they can face the world.

    why was the new CEO crying in the meeting with you? was she frustrated because of your irrational behaviour? had you been confrontational instead of constructive? but you don’t mention any of that – just your own emotional reaction to her manner, which to you is the only thing that matters

    why did the members ask why they were being painted as the bad guys? what conversation had taken place before that? had new ador requested they stop terrorising their juniors? the reason doesn’t matter to you, it made you feel bad so that’s the important point.

    your story about the greeting/’ignore her’ incident has changed multiple times over the course of months. you’re often very vague about it, focusing on how distressed hanni was about it rather than the specific details of what actually happened. yet when belift responds, it’s with a list of facts, dates, times, notes from meetings etc.

    anyway, just something I was thinking about.

    (I think more parallels could be found looking back on some of mhj’s statements as well.)

  28. SouthAtmosphere9556 on

    This whole thing has become too messy to keep up with. I find it funny, depressingly funny, that in this thread and in r/ newjeans both sides are completely utterly convinced they are 100% right and the other camp is made up of sinister bullies. Everyone is very sure and very self righteous about this currently unfolding, purposefully muddled series of events

  29. hazman_pds on

    The 13th Megathread, my goodness

    We are going to reach 20 megathreads of this at this rate

  30. nikitaloss on

    I wonder if they also questioned Illit since they were there. Would this rookie group lie for their manager?

  31. Human-panda21 on

    I really want this thing to end, not only because it’s annoying because I’ve had enough of MHJ now. Young idols specifically talking about ILLIT here – have been on the receiving end for months now and this is their first year of debut ffs đŸ€ŠđŸ»â€â™€ïžÂ Â 

    Bang Si-Hyuk made the biggest blunder by putting that women in place of power and giving her the freedom to do whatever she wants (and to think MHJ wanted the control to BigHit, thankfully she didn’t get that). A woman who has been planning for the downfall of the biggest group for years and waited to strike once the members enlisted in the military. 

    Idek what to say to NJ/Bernies now because these 2 groups need to separate MHJ from NJ, she’s a manipulative women who is going to drop the girls as soon as they don’t give in the results she wants. LSF and BTS have been dragged for months. 

    I’ve given NJ the benefit of the doubt that they’ve been manipulated but now they’re just behaving like a bunch of arrogant, sly kids who are throwing a fit because their request of having MHJ as the CEO is not being complied by HYBE, like who do they think they are to give ultimatums? you’re an employee that works for a company – and you’re not supposed to interfere in legal/corporate matters. 

    You can’t really blame other HYBE fandoms for wanting their artists to stay away from NJ because of this. MHJ/NJ/Bernies have made a mountain of a molehill. 

  32. Placesbetween86 on

    I want to follow the rules of the mods, so I’m requesting that nobody reply to this with anything derogatory toward any of the parties involved. This is meant to inform and provide context.

    The following is a timeline of moments that I believe display a pattern of certain behaviors and the overall mentality of the members of NJ in regards to how they view this case and their place in HYBE. Please keep in mind, the sources I provide do not mean I cosign everything said in them, but is merely to show these events are documented as having happened.

    –[ 2022](https://www.reddit.com/r/kpop/comments/1foa743/comment/lqmq89z/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button), Seventeen members state on a live that New Jeans’ members (Hanni in particular) misinterpreted them asking “Aren’t you making a comeback soon”, taking it as them saying “You won’t be making a comeback soon.”

    * Seungkwan: I heard that they thought I was saying, “*You won’t be making a comeback soon!*”
    * Jeonghan: And they were like, “(Gasp) *But why? Why can’t we make a comeback soon?*”
    * Seungkwan: They thought I was being like, “*NAH! YOU WON’T BE COMING BACK ANYTIME SOON!*”

    –[ March 25th](https://www.koreaboo.com/news/newjeans-hyein-diss-illit-stop-copying-ador-hybe/), Hyein uploads several photos that say “stop copying” on Illit’s debut date

    –[ May 12th](https://www.allkpop.com/article/2024/05/k-netizens-react-to-newjeans-parent-alleging-that-chairman-bang-did-not-accept-the-members-greeting), New Jeans’ parents accuse Bang PD of not greeting New Jeans in the elevator

    – [May 17th](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/k-pop/music/news/all-five-newjeans-members-have-submitted-petition-letters-to-the-court-standing-with-min-hee-jin/articleshow/110228561.cms), NJ submit a petition of support for MHJ to the court for her injunction

    –[ June 8th](https://www.koreaboo.com/news/newjeans-minji-mentions-aespa-live-stream-karina-responds/), Minji places Aespa stickers in the HYBE elevator (After MHJ made public a text from Bang PD where he asked her to “step on Aespa”)

    – September 11th, NJ film a livestream where Hanni claims that a manager told Illit to ignore her

    –[ ](https://m.economictimes.com/magazines/panache/did-new-jeans-danielle-acknowledge-bts-jungkooks-support-in-hybe-feud/articleshow/113395480.cms)September 14th, BTS’ Jungkook posts support for New Jeans. Danielle responds by posting the same emojis he did, with the inclusion of MHJ’s hat.

    – September 23rd, NJ have a meeting with ADOR CEO Kim, in which they later tell us was intense, and included the CEO crying. Minji posts an update on phoning with the word “Monday” and a laughing emoji. (Unsure if this update was before or after the meeting, but whether it was does change overall context so keep that in mind)

    –[ ](https://www.reddit.com/r/kpop/comments/1foa743/comment/lqq4n1w/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)October 7th, New Jeans’ parents complain about ADOR CEO Kim crying in front of their daughters in a meeting, as well as bringing up a complaint from Hanni about the security staff. “Hanni explained the situation during the meeting on the 23rd to CEO Kim Joo-young, saying, ‘When I visited the security team to review the CCTV footage, as only the victim could check it, the security staff couldn’t meet my eyes, and their hands were trembling.’

    Whether you do or don’t interpret all of these things as being relevant to this situation is up to you. There are some that I, at the time of occurrence, gave the benefit of the doubt as being about something else or just a coincidence, but once I sat back and looked at them all together, I personally changed my view.

  33. KazVanilla on

    ngl if the NJ girls continue to become more involved it seems to me that they WANT HYBE to terminate their contracts so they can claim unemployment or whateva ![img](emote|t5_2r1ox|3559)

  34. frostedsummer on

    Ever since their debut, I’ve been such a huge fan of NewJeans. Attention was easily in my top 5 kpop songs of all time. Really tried to give the girls the benefit of the doubt ever since this whole thing unfolded but I’m honestly starting to not feel any sympathy for them. Like it can’t be that hard to read the room and realise the amount of damage you’ve done to other younger idols right?

  35. Etheria_system on

    Just want to say thank you to the mods for all your hard work on these threads over the last few months. You’ve done an amazing job at keeping things civil and locking when needed. I hope for all our sakes and yours that this saga reaches a conclusion soon

  36. Etheria_system on

    The parents of these girls are such a huge part of the problem imo. It’s such a toxic situation and I really feel for the new jeans members who have every adult in their lives twisting the narrative towards their own financial gain.

    I don’t think the new jeans members are making wise decisions, but I also feel like it’s not right to view them as being fully autonomous in their decision making. Being in abusive/controlling relationships with parents and parental figures is something that affects you even when you’re of age. As someone who is very much older than them but still unravelling the impact of narcissistic abuse in my life, I do feel empathy. It’s never just as black and white as “they should know better”

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