Min Heejin expresses regret towards HYBE in court, highlighting issues of contract termination and her treatment after NewJeans' success.
November/27/2025 18:12Related Groups & Members
Former ADOR representative Min Heejin expressed regret towards HYBE. On the 27th, the Seoul Central District Court Civil Agreement Division 31 (Chief Judge Nam In-soo) held the third hearing regarding the confirmation of the timing of the contract termination between Min Heejin and HYBE, as well as her lawsuit against HYBE for the exercise of put options. Min Heejin herself attended this hearing. In court, she stated, 'Honor and the quality of the work are more important than money,' and claimed, 'NewJeans succeeded immediately after their debut. However, HYBE's estimates were terrible.' She also mentioned, 'I was subjected to slave contract terms. I never thought CEO Park Ji-won would stab me in the back. I felt great betrayal and anger over the permanent ban on concurrent positions.' Min Heejin expressed her anger and shed tears over her dismissal from the representative director position despite her success in forming the group. She described the fan meeting for NewJeans at Tokyo Dome as a historic event and said, 'A company that dismisses the president of a subsidiary that achieved such a thing is unreasonable. It was hell, but I endured it for NewJeans.' She added, 'There is no reason for me to be dismissed when I managed transparently and healthily,' and 'I had to leave the company in pain after doing everything I could.' Min Heejin was dismissed as ADOR's representative director in August last year and resigned from her internal director position in November. On this day, she also touched on NewJeans and ILLIT. After the debut teaser for ILLIT was released, she received calls from NewJeans members' parents asking, 'Why is our child not here?' indicating that ILLIT resembled NewJeans. She expressed dissatisfaction that when NewJeans was transferred from SOURCE MUSIC to ADOR, it was done without explanation, as if they were objects. She continued, 'ILLIT debuted with a similar concept without properly showcasing NewJeans' achievements. People asked, 'Isn't it because they are from the same company that they were copied? Did Min Heejin give her consent?' and emphasized, 'I felt that imitating works within the company was an act of contempt towards us.' In relation to this, she referred to an email sent to HYBE's Bang Si-hyuk, stating, 'The email included the essence of whether the reason for bringing me in was to copy my works at will,' and added, 'It meant not to look down on us.' She stated, 'When I raised issues with BELIFT LAB, I received a response that 'it cannot be recognized as plagiarism.' I thought HYBE would deny it, but I didn't expect it to go this far.' Last November, Min Heejin filed a lawsuit for the exercise of put options at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District after leaving HYBE. If the court recognizes her right to exercise the put option, HYBE will have to pay her 26 billion won (about 27 million yen). HYBE claims that the exercise of the put option is invalid because her shareholder contract was terminated in July last year. Meanwhile, Min Heejin argues that she has the right to claim payment because she exercised the put option while the contract was still in effect, leading to a direct conflict.
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