Min Hee-jin is accused of planning a 'buyout frame' for ILLIT before their debut, amid ongoing legal disputes with HYBE.
September/12/2025 12:33Related Groups & Members
Former ADOR representative Min Hee-jin has been accused of preparing a 'buyout frame' for the girl group ILLIT before their debut. Yesterday (11th) afternoon, the Seoul Central District Court Civil Agreement Division 31 (Chief Judge: Nam In-soo) held the second hearing date for a lawsuit regarding stock trading related to put options against HYBE involving Min Hee-jin and two others. On this day, the court also concurrently examined the fourth hearing of a lawsuit filed by HYBE against Min Hee-jin regarding the confirmation of contract termination among shareholders. Min Hee-jin attended the trial, and Chief Legal Officer Jeong Jin-soo appeared as a witness. On this day, after revealing evidence obtained through an audit of ADOR, Jeong Jin-soo claimed that Min Hee-jin had planned a 'buyout frame' for ILLIT before their debut. Jeong Jin-soo stated, 'Documents that emerged during the audit included Project 1945 created by Lee Sang-woo, the deputy representative under Min Hee-jin, as well as VP business notes, investigation documents, and HYBE's seven major sins. An attachment containing exchanges with a shaman in Min Hee-jin's work email was discovered.' In response, HYBE's legal representative questioned Jeong Jin-soo, asking, 'What does the mention of 'LE SSERAFIM 2/19' and 'ILLIT 3/25' in the Project 1945 documents mean?' Jeong Jin-soo revealed, '2/19 is the comeback date for LE SSERAFIM, and 3/25 is the debut date for ILLIT,' adding, 'It seems they were trying to attack ILLIT with such a frame, especially since they were pre-debut.' Hearing this, Min Hee-jin stated, 'The suspicion that ILLIT copied is a claim from the community before it is my personal assertion. There were articles speculating whether such things could be tolerated since HYBE is the same agency. The suspicion of ILLIT's plagiarism was raised when the teaser photos were released on March 2, and from that time, there were already questions like, 'Isn't this NewJeans?' Jeong Jin-soo countered, 'I think anyone who debuts will always face reactions of 'they look like someone else.' I don't think it's an authoritative evaluation. I don't think there has been a legal ruling on plagiarism.' Min Hee-jin pressed, 'It's natural for public reactions to arise before a legal ruling, but can we ignore public judgments?' Amid the debate between Jeong Jin-soo and Min Hee-jin regarding ILLIT, HYBE emphasized, 'We did not hear about plagiarism allegations; we pointed out the buyout frame of pre-debut ILLIT.' • [PHOTO] Min Hee-jin smiles before the press for the first time in a while, ahead of the trial with HYBE • BELIFT LAB rebuts plagiarism allegations against ILLIT in the lawsuit with Min Hee-jin, stating 'the choreography and costumes are conceptually different from NewJeans.'
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