Min Hee-jin reports HYBE executives to police

Social Affairs

Published: 24 Jul. 2024, 18:17 Updated: 24 Jul. 2024, 19:16

Min Hee-jin reports HYBE executives to police

Min Hee-jin, CEO of girl group NewJeans' agency ADOR, at the Yongsan Police Station in central Seoul on July 9 [NEWS1]

Min Hee-jin, the CEO of girl group NewJeans' agency ADOR, has reported HYBE executives to the police, a day after warning of legal measures against the BTS agency, its subsidiary Source Music and entertainment news outlet Dispatch.

Min's legal representation from Shin & Kim LLC reported five HYBE executives, including current CEO Park Ji-won, to the Yongsan Police Station for defamation and disruption of business as well as for leaking her private messages to the press.

According to the law firm, HYBE higher-ups restored private messages she had wiped from her old laptop, which she handed over to the parent label for an internal audit, and leaked the data to the press "to form a negative consensus against Min Hee-jin."

"The plaintiff repeatedly requested, officially and unofficially, that the accused parties stop their actions that were confusing the public and harming the constituents of ADOR, including the artists," Shin & Kim LLC said in a press release.

"However, their illegalities continued until recently. We have no choice but to take action against the damage being done to the artists and ADOR constituents."

An email sent by former ADOR vice president Shin Dong-hoon to HYBE CEO Park Ji-won on July 13, 2021 [ADOR]

The news comes a day after Min warned that legal measures would be pursued against HYBE, Source Music and Dispatch for leaking private messages through "illegal means" on Tuesday evening, while refuting a report by Dispatch that came earlier the same day.

Min claimed that she had been undermined by Source Music, not the other way around, which was stated in the Dispatch report that came out Tuesday morning.

The report said that Min intentionally delayed the process of debuting a team of trainees — which had been referred to as Team N — so that she could take some of the trainees and debut them under her own label, instead of Source Music.

Team N was set to debut during the third quarter of 2021 with Min at the helm of its branding and another team of trainees named Team S — featuring the trainees of girl group Le Sserafim — set for the first quarter of 2022, but Source Music was forced to change the order because Min had been delaying the whole process, according to the Dispatch report.

HYBE chairman Bang Si-hyuk, left, and ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin [JOONGANG ILBO]

Dispatch cited KakaoTalk chats between Min and a shaman she had been consulting, which Min's legal representation said not only goes against the contract between a company and its employees, but is "a grave crime."

"The content of the report — the record of internal meetings and personal KakaoTalk chats — cannot be accessed without the help of HYBE and Source Music," the law firm said in a press release.

"Min Hee-jin handed in her laptop that she had been using three years ago after wiping out all of its data, so we suspect that HYBE restored the data the personal conversations she had [with others]. HYBE claims that it did not restore the data but that the data had been saved on the cloud network, which makes it even worse. This is a serious crime regarding digital records."

Min requested that HYBE hand over the aforementioned laptop to the police for investigation, but HYBE has been refusing to do so, according to the law firm.

Girl group NewJeans [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Min's attorney also argued that she only ended up delaying her work because Source Music copied Min's strategy in August 2020 after HYBE chairman Bang Si-hyuk had turned it down earlier that year in May. Min made a complaint to Source Music CEO So Sung-jin, who "admitted to doing so," according to Shin & Kim.

The law firm disclosed an email that Shin Dong-hoon, former vice president of ADOR and a member of Min's team in 2020, sent to HYBE CEO Park Ji-won on July 13, 2021, demanding an answer on the issue, which never got a reply, according to the press release.

"ADOR has the ability to release additional data, including the Slack or KakaoTalk conversations that took place between the parties involved, but will only disclose the email because we find it inappropriate to reveal conversations between individuals," Shin & Kim said.

Source Music's Le Sserafim [SOURCE MUSIC]

Source Music on Wednesday denied Min's accusation on its official account for X, formerly known as Twitter.

"Min Hee-jin's claim that Source Music copied her strategy is a lie," the agency said. "We never copied her strategy, nor did we admit to doing so."

The company also warned of legal measures against Min, in addition to the 500 million won lawsuit it filed earlier this month.

Update, July 24: Added background about developments from previous day.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]