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Megathread 24: HYBE / ADOR / MHJ – Court rules in favor of ADOR, NewJeans’ Contract remains Valid, further hearings for Source, Belift, and HYBE against Min Hee Jin to come, and More


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

Substantial news developments may be posted to the subreddit (outside of the Megathreads). Moderators will only approve posts that focus on statements by relevant parties, official representatives, or legal authorities. Unofficial commentary, fandom activities, speculation, or blind items will not be acceptable. Articles or translations should ideally be presented as neutrally as possible. Titles or content that are obviously sensationalized or intended to persuade readers to one perspective will be removed.

English-speaking news outlets that have relatively more neutral reporting include Soompi, Yonhap News, and Korea JoongAng Daily.

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.

  • TEN and ELEVEN and TWELVE contains ex-ADOR employee's sexual harassment case, band Shakatak's plagiarism claim, HYBE 2.0 and ADOR restructuring with new CEO Kim Joo Young, MV director drama, the NewJeans livestream, MHJ's 2nd injunction filing and public events/interviews.

  • THIRTEEN and FOURTEEN and FIFTEEN contains an interview with NewJeans' parents, Hanni and CEO Kim Joo Young at the National Assembly, MHJ's reappointment as director, Kim Taeho at the National Assembly, HYBE's Weekly Industry Report leak, the court's dismissal of MHJ's 2nd Injunction, ADOR board's vote against making MHJ's CEO again, NewJeans' certified letter of ultimatum to ADOR, rejection of Hanni's workplace bullying claim by labor ministry, MHJ's resignation from ADOR, and NewJeans' contract termination press conference.

  • SIXTEEN and SEVENTEEN and EIGHTEEN contains ADOR's 26-page response to NewJeans' certified letter, Dispatch's exposé on MHJ's alleged strategy to leave HYBE, ADOR seeking validity of NewJeans member contracts, KMCA/KOSPO statements concerning tampering, the creation of the 'jeanzforfree' Instagram account, visa concerns, Employee B's MHJ defamation mediation failing, Davolink Chairman details, first hearings for Belift Lab and Source Music vs MHJ damages cases, dismissal of former ADOR VP's workplace harassment case against HYBE/ADOR, ADOR's injunction to halt NewJeans ad deals, and NewJeans rebranding to NJZ.

  • NINETEEN and TWENTY and TWENTY ONE contain the new Instagram account of NewJeans' parents, workplace harassment accusations against HYBE/ADOR executives cleared, the granting of ADOR's provisional injunction against NewJeans independent activities along with group's appeal/objection, the shareholder agreement termination and exercising put/call options cases being run jointly, and the 1st contract validity hearing between ADOR/NewJeans.

MEGATHREAD TWENTY TWO covered through May to mid-July.

  • Contains: The granting of ADOR's 'indirect enforcement' request by the court, which would result in potential fines for NewJeans members if they pursue independent activities, procedural hearings for the ADOR/NewJeans contract validity case along with the Belift Lab/Source Music/HYBE cases against MHJ, and the rejection of NewJeans' appeal/objection to the injunction.

MEGATHREAD TWENTY THREE covered mid-July to October.

  • Contains: The finalized rejection of NewJeans' injunction appeal, the suspicion clearance for Min Hee Jin regarding occupational breach of trust accusations by HYBE and HYBE's appeal, the 3rd hearing for Belift Lab's damages case against MHJ around plagiarism, two sessions with failure of mediation between NewJeans and ADOR, the 3rd hearing for Source Music's damages case against MHJ and KakaoTalk messages confirmed to be allowed as evidence, and the fine against MHJ upheld in Employee B's case against her for workplace bullying.

Articles / Timeline

251030

Looking Ahead:

  • October 31: Next hearing for Belift Lab vs. MHJ

  • November 7: Next hearing for Source Music vs. MHJ (w/KakaoTalk messages adopted into evidence)

  • November 27: Next hearing for HYBE vs. MHJ (Additional questioning for MHJ)

  • December 18: HYBE vs. MHJ (Last chance for statements/evidence)

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 (Soompi and Korea JoongAng)

  • MV Director Shin Woo Seok filed a lawsuit against ADOR CEO Kim Joo Young and ADOR VP Lee Do Kyung for defamation. (Korea JoongAng)

  • MHJ's lawsuits against Belift Lab's Kim Tae Ho for defamation (Yonhap), HYBE CCO Park Tae Hee and PR Director Cho for breach of duty (Yonhap), and HYBE executives and Dispatch reporters for defamation. (Soompi) (One or both of these might be re-statements of earlier suits.)

  • ADOR's lawsuit to determine validity of their contracts with NewJeans (Soompi)

Link back to MEGATHREADS 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – 16 – 17 – 18 – 19 – 20 – 21 – 22 – 23

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by KPOP_MOD

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39 Comments

  1. silveredgebreak on

    Had Tokkies stood up against MHJ earlier, NJ probably could have escaped from her grip instead.

  3. JauntyGiraffe on

    I still don’t know what the truth is in this case but either way it was such an epic fumble to not just settle with ADOR when they were literally going to give in to everything but MHJ being CEO. As far as I know, they didn’t have enough to go on even before a lot of it was disproved by surveillance in the HYBE building

  4. Raisu39 on

    Till today I keep seeing people say they got mistreated by the company but still don’t know how, not getting bowed? Leaking dance videos? Leaking her visa??/

  6. theblindcatexp on

    Honestly hope the girls get to therapy first and unlatch their existence from mhj before continuing any public activities if they ever choose to cooperate with ador

  7. hopee727 on

    Oooo bunnies on Twitter are NOT taking this well.

    Saying the legal system is broken, why should new jeans go back to a company they can’t trust, the source trainee video is still on the internet, evidence was tampered with(?) judge is payed off, ADOR didn’t send in 3 clarification answers when asked too(?), arrest bang pd, hybes investment does not go above new jeans own personal feelings and current situation.

  8. melbottjer on

    can’t believe they had to go through this entire process dragging everything along. how long has it been going on now for the outcome we all knew was coming? just insanity what those involved thought they could get away with.

    i wonder how the fans will be addressed after this verdict. should be interesting

  9. Chocolate_cornflakes on

    Good that the court gave the judgement for each and every accusation so that nothing can be misinterpreted or assumed. I guess the court was seeing a lot of delusion and went “I’m gonna make this as clear as possible”.

  11. shookyboo on

    so where are the investors now? are they still hoping for that 100% win to this day? if someone’s breaching the trust here, it’s clearly mhj.

  12. Anchi-07 on

    The reason nj is appealing because they have no other options they would lose face if they would turn around and say ah ok we accept the law and go back sry we didn’t mean all the hate we spread. Forget nj and MHJ hurting employees and groups and shaming the kpop system.
    Also I think nj specifically are deeper in this than what we see.
    Ador still has the kiddy gloves on. I m sure Ador have some undisputed evidence we didn’t see yet. There were part Ador and nj did not want us to hear.
    In the end Nj will lose the appeals (the same as the injunction). After losing the appeals they will officially cancel their contract and start the negotiations for the termination fee. If they don’t go back Ador will sue them. Ador will sue them for sure. If nj leaves Ador and start again then surprisingly all their dirty laundry will leak (coincidentally 🤣
    Ador will go hard btw forget that Ador will or should compromise why would they? Ador won everything so far.

    Nj and MHJ will lose everything.
    Why?
    Because they are in the wrong and they were stupid enough to plan everything on company property and all of them were planning and executing illegal activities because of personal greed.

  13. healthyscalpsforall on

    Well, obviously NewJeans was gonna lose in court, and obviously they’re going to try and appeal, which will also not work.

    What’s funny is that people keep saying “if you’d read beyond the headlines you would know this was going to happen!” And I disagree.

    You can easily tell that this whole thing was not gonna go well from them literally just by reading the headlines.

    Guerrilla livestream? Claiming that they can just declare their contracts invalid because of some special clause? The National Assembly fiasco? The fact we were talking about that whole hallway incident for like half a year?

    That guerrilla livestream, by the way, happened in September of last year. It’s been more than a year, than this whole story has gotten *nowhere.*

    I’d like to point out that within that same timeframe, the Loona members had all won their injunctions, and were already signed to other companies, with some of them already releasing music and going on tours.

    Remember Omega X? From that awful video of their abuse getting leaked, to them winning their lawsuit against their company and getting their contracts suspended, *took less than three months.*

    It’s been more than a year and NewJeans have made *zero* progress. In fact, I’m pretty sure they’ve made *minus* progress, because haven’t they stopped doing brand work lately?

    I hope that they finally stop living in denial and come to terms with reality. I don’t know what else they’re going to try after the appeal inevitably fails, but honestly, whatever it is, it’s not gonna work either. They need to pay what is due, leave ADOR, and find a way forward.

    And hopefully one day, they will take accountability for the part they played in the damage done. I don’t care about HYBE as a corporation, but there’s been very real people that have been hurt in this shitshow. Some of them were their coworkers. Some of them were even their friends. They deserve some sort of amends.

  15. Electronic-Basis-586 on

    The worst part is that it all started with Min Heejin, and it’s the girls who are going to pay for everything. Idk they should never have listened to that woman.

  16. Sarah_13020 on

    When will NJ fans stop being blindful about the real devil in this case, which is the woman who dragged them to this unnecessary legal battle??? They sacrificed their career and reputation for her while she’s not doing any of that, and already moving on with her life while they are stuck.

    mind you, they VOLUNTEERLLY put themselves in hiatus for her. They are ( were ) scared of being of being shelved, but surprise, look who actually managed to did it and still takes zero blame.

  17. goodguyCJ on

    i knew they were cooked when they started saying wearing a hanbok for photoshoots was copying them

  19. LittlestDarkAge on

    the coping has begun, this loss is a “dark day for the industry” and “a loss for every kpop group under slave contracts”

    sorry but if bunnies believed a single word of this drivel they would have at any point gotten these other fanbases to rally for gaeun of madein too. but only newjeans is important so only newjeans is equated to kpop as a whole while other groups’ struggles are their own. fact of the matter is, loona, tvxq, omega x won their cases because they did what they needed to do and had actual evidence to support their claims. the ones that did not do so lost, it’s as simple as that. there are absolutely cases that ended in settlements or just fell under the radar but fifty fifty, cbx, and now newjeans are not those cases. they didn’t do what they needed to do and they were never going to win simply by coopting the sentiment that kpop companies suck a lot of times and we “should” always support idols.

  20. bunniefication on

    This all still feels like a fever dream.

    And the outcome was what had been predicted since last year. The worst thing is that NJ’s fans have still not realised that MHJ just played them. NJ have to pay all of the astronomic legal fees while she goes away without paying a dime AND instead she made a whole new company and will debut another gg while the girls are stuck in a limbo and never ending lawsuits.

    Honestly the real winner here are their legal team.

  21. QuillanGornt on

    Hasn’t HYBE made enough money from these teenage girls? How much more money does a company need? Let these girls out of the basement.

  22. Alarmed-Ad289 on

    Mhj really made them as fall guys while she made her own company. Bad day for them

    Good day on hybe groups who got confirmed she is the villain of their harassment. I know source music, hybe and belift ready to put it in their PowerPoint 

  23. Select_Ant1242 on

    This was expected but still so sad… I don’t think these girls know what they are doing.

    My bet is now they are gonna fill for contract termination, face penalties and redebut as group with MHJ and pray everything goes well enough because I doubt they go back to Ador or quit the entertainment industry.

    I still think this won’t be the end of them and they still have a chance to do decently well outside of hybe because the most of kpop fans haven’t turned their backs on them except for hybe stans, though if i were them I wouldn’t trust MHJ at all. Sadly both of them are gonna become a lot more dependent on each other after this because it’s the only thing they have now

  24. comeasyouuare on

    And if I tell you this case will have ripple effects in the industry wherein the idol contracts will be further tweaked to ensure no other idol pull this shiz ?

  25. Imaginary_Pie_5699 on

    *where* are they finding all their money to fund the constant lawsuits and appeals? surely royalties from ador + their parents’ money would run dry at some point

  28. New_Refrigerator_251 on

    Let’s be honest,Ador did the right thing for filling contract validly with the law . Everyone in this megathread knew the outcome.

  30. audriellezzn on

    Megathread has started to slow down!

    So as many and I guessed, they lost the case. They’re appealing, which I also saw happening. As for what’s going to happen in the future, the combined loss + appeal is tunneling down to only a few options, and this is what I believe will happen:

    This appeal will probably drag out for a while. As for what happens inbetween then, the members released a statement through Sejong insisting they cannot return to ADOR, so its simple to say that unless a member or two changes their mind, they won’t be coming back. This could now constitute as a direct breach of contract, because even though they are appealing, the court has still upheld their contract. Now if ADOR sends them schedules, potential brand deals, etc. (which I believe they will definitely be doing, as the contract is upheld so they will continue operating as such), this could even moreso become a breach of contract, because NJS wouldn’t be fufilling their side of the contract even though the contract is now officially upheld and so they must also uphold their side. Now however long the appeals take and however many times they lose, I believe that ADOR will file for breach of contract whenever the last appeal is exauhsted. It could be said that the members will finally decide to file for contract termination, but I don’t believe they’ll do it because they don’t have the money or an investor with said money, or if they eventually decide to, they won’t file immediately. As time keeps on going, the members are losing more and more value as a group the longer they stay on hiatus. So if they don’t have an investor now, they won’t have one in a year or however long it takes for the appeal (and I believe another subsequent appeal) to be processed.

    Parroting what I said, once the last appeal(s) is lost, I believe ADOR will file for a Breach of Contract lawsuit. Why? As I’ve said before, its the simplest way to terminate the contract, collect the contract penalty, and also any additional damages the members have incured, and probably the most important part to HYBE and ADOR; to set precedent. The members keep showing time and time again that they’re unwilling to return to ADOR no matter what, so there’s no need for ADOR to wait the contract out. In fact, if possible, I believe that ADOR will combine a Breach of Contract and Tampering lawsuit in one, or file both around the same time; 2 birds with one stone, as they say. This is when they finally take the gloves off and go scorched earth on the members, and again MHJ as well. ADOR will likely do everything within their legal right to expose the schemes that have been going on behind the scenes that the average person is unaware of.

    Now as all of this is going down, I predicted to myself looooong ago, a year ago, that this wasn’t going to go pretty. I was holding on hope that perhaps the members really did have evidence of mistreatment and such, but it all tied back to “we can’t let go of MHJ.” As time went on I realized that this really was only about MHJ, and the members were throwing their careers away for someone who will abandon them at the 1st instance of guaranteed loss for NJS. I believe that very soon the members, parents, and bunnies, will finally be seeing MHJ’s true colors. She will most likely abandon them very soon. It will cause outrage in the fandom but there will be the “I told you so” crowd (which I would personally be apart of). But by then, it will be too late. NJS will be suffering the consequences of their own actions, yes, but also of their parents for not protecting them enough from MHJ. And MHJ will likely get out of this; not wholly unscathed (as much as I would *love* to see her go to jail, I know there’s a very real chance she won’t be getting much other than a fuckton of debt, if that, which wouldn’t be even a fraction of what the members will be paying), but much less unscathed than the members. She might even be able to continue in this new company of hers, debut a new gg (or bg) and tell the public that she “warned the members, but they insisted on taking this path and its *so* tragic for her that there’s nothing she can do but dinstance herself and create a new group to feel better”

    I hope that as time goes on the public realized that this wasn’t a case of “artists rights” but a case of grooming, and terrible stage parents who care more about the money than their kids’ wellbeing.

  31. FlimsyTie9109 on

    It’s a little sad what it’s happening for the girls. I won’t take out the responsability they, at this point, have too in this mess (especially Hanni), but it’s so clear that they have suffered grooming by MHJ and were mislead even by their parents in this case, and that those adults created a bubble in the girls world and even something cult-like. And now we have Sejong too that we know that is involved with MHJ in this since before it was caught by HYBE and that are obviously misleading the girls too (look at their interview before the injunction results and their actions till then, they really were sure they would win it), and now probably recommending them to appeal again just to take more money from them.

  33. ellaellaeheheh17 on

    >[“After meticulously reviewing materials between HYBE and ADOR-NewJeans, it was determined to be the result of preemptive work by former CEO Min, sought for the purpose of creating negative public opinion against HYBE, among other reasons.”](https://www.reddit.com/r/kpop/comments/1ojnnsn/comment/nm4mwh2/)

    I’m glad to have this, because I cant believe we still have to argue what MHJ was trying to do all along and that she started this mess. She was the one bringing up idols first. She ruined ILLIT debut year and went after le sserafim for her own selfish reasons and the public went with it. I hope those groups see nothing but success and get their vindication (remember illit members were accused of bullying because of a food choice, I wont forget it).

    tbh I wish spagetthi would go #1 today, eat it up.

  34. Mozart-Luna-Echo on

    Gosh I don’t understand why don’t their parents and the girls put themselves first (instead of MHJ) for once and do the smart thing and negotiate with Ador.

  35. crouchspammer on

    I got into kpop after the whole newjeans thing so i’m probably ootl but the thing I don’t understand what exactly is ADOR’s goal with this court case? like contract and newjeans’ reasons aside, if the girls genuinely don’t want to be under ADOR regardless of the circumstances, what is the point of trying to keep them there? is it just to prevent them from doing any activities outside of the company?

  36. TruYu96 on

    I love NJ but the girls should have been smarter here.

    Obligatory f MHJ though; ruined the girls career because of her own greed

  37. Icy_Shock9953 on

    MHJ did this, threw away her magnum opus bc of greed. Also I still can’t understand how there wasn’t any adult in their lives that recognized what they were doing. 🤦‍♂️

  38. BlackSwan134340 on

    So they’re just gonna keep wasting their time fighting the courts? It would be sad if Min Heejin just debuts another group that gets popular while NJ girls careers die. Yeah they’ve done stupid things but MHJ has also been in their ear since they were young and orchestrated a lot of this. MHJ deserves to lose her career way more than these girls do

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