Doubts raised about ADOR's official position, HYBE responds, CEO denies takeover plan, audit initiated.
April/23/2024 19:04Related Groups & Members
Yesterday, doubts were raised about the official position announced by ADOR. According to Korean media, HYBE replied via email to Min Hee-jin's allegations regarding the "NewJeans copy (imitation) suspicion" of BELIFT LAB's group ILLIT around 10 a.m. on the 22nd. The content of the email was confirmed to be six pages long, and it was confirmed that she received the relevant document by email. The timing of HYBE's response was one day earlier than the deadline set by Min Hee-jin (23rd). Despite receiving a response, Min Hee-jin still released a statement in the afternoon of the 22nd, claiming the "ILLIT's NewJeans copy suspicion" and explaining that "HYBE and BELIFT LAB have been reluctant to admit their mistakes and make excuses, dragging out the time." However, this was not true, as HYBE had already replied to her allegations as being untrue on the morning of the 22nd. Additionally, on April 22nd, HYBE demanded a shareholders' meeting for ADOR's directors and sent a resignation request to Min Hee-jin. HYBE's audit team reportedly became aware of Min Hee-jin's recent attempt to pressure HYBE by partnering with one of ADOR's management to sell HYBE's shares in ADOR (80%) to a private equity fund (PEF). The audit team of HYBE also prepared to establish an independent corporation to take out the members of NewJeans in case Min Hee-jin's pressure strategy to sell to private equity did not work. There were also suspicions that Min Hee-jin was preparing a strategy to shift the huge penalty risk of NewJeans, which had been less than two years since its debut, to HYBE by terminating the contract between NewJeans and ADOR. In response, Min Hee-jin released an official statement on the 22nd, claiming that she had never tried to take over the management rights of ADOR. She showed a position that she was under retaliatory counterattacks from HYBE, which began with internal whistleblowing such as raising suspicions of NewJeans copying by ILLIT. As the discussion spread, HYBE's CEO Park Ji-won stated, "This case has made it clear that there was a plan to take over the company, and we will start an audit to confirm and correct this. If the contents that have already been confirmed to some extent internally and externally are further clarified through this audit, the company will take clear measures against responsible parties," and commented, "I hope that the staff will not be too distracted by the current reports. Currently, the responsible parties are not properly responding to the company's legitimate audit and are refusing to answer, and what they are claiming is mostly not true or baseless."
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