ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin accused of backing male executive in sexual harassment case

Social Affairs

Published: 25 Jul. 2024, 12:13 Updated: 25 Jul. 2024, 14:49

ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin accused of backing male executive in sexual harassment case

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

Min Hee-jin sided with a male executive during a sexual harassment case filed by a female ADOR employee in March this year, according to another report by entertainment outlet Dispatch released Thursday.

The report included detailed KakaoTalk chats between Min and an ADOR executive, her shaman, and other ADOR employees. This follows Dispatch's Tuesday report, which contained chats between Min and Source Music executives, suggesting Min was responsible for delaying NewJeans' debut, rather than HYBE.

Thursday's report contained more detailed conversations between Min and an anonymous ADOR executive before and after an ADOR employee filed a sexual harassment complaint to HYBE, which owns ADOR, in March.

Instead of reproaching the male executive, Min allegedly supported him and referred to the female employee as a "bitch" for "hurting [her] feelings." According to the leaked KakaoTalk chats, Min attempted to arrange a face-to-face meeting between the executive and the employee but was unsuccessful. She also allegedly coached the executive on how to draft his statement to HYBE.

The female employee quit ADOR and the executive "got away with a warning," according to Dispatch.

The report also highlighted comments from Min disparaging female employees, including saying, "I want to kill the feminist bitches," and detailed the prayers she requested from her shaman. Dispatch reported that Min spent around 70 million won ($50,500) in 2021 on these prayers and rituals.

ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin during her second press conference on May 31 [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Dispatch reported that the KakaoTalk chats were taken from the data file HYBE submitted to "an outside institution" as part of its internal audit.

The report comes just a day after Min reported five HYBE executives to police for defamation and leaking her private messages to the press. Min also threatened legal action against Source Music and Dispatch.

According to Min's legal representation, Shin & Kim LLC, 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 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 off all of its data, so we suspect that HYBE restored the data of 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."

In response, HYBE argued that Min never submitted any data, including her laptop, and did not cooperate with the internal audit. The company also announced it would report Min to the police for false accusations.

"The data, including her [KakaoTalk] chat with her shaman was sent by Min Hee-jin to an outside party through her work email at HYBE and it remains on our server," HYBE said.

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