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| Photo=DB |
[Sports Today Reporter Yoon Hye-young] Min Hee-jin reportedly prepared public opinion campaigns, reports to relevant agencies, and lawsuits in advance, intending to separate ADOR, which includes NewJeans, from HYBE. In this process, she planned to use NewJeans’ parents to naturally create public opinion that HYBE had treated NewJeans unfairly. Meanwhile, she also explored potential investors to acquire ADOR. Min Hee-jin’s actions cannot be seen as protecting NewJeans from breaches of exclusive contracts. NewJeans’ claim of “ADOR’s breach of duty” is the result of Min Hee-jin’s preliminary work to find elements necessary for creating negative public opinion against HYBE and filing lawsuits. It appears her intention was for ADOR to become independent from HYBE, or for Min Hee-jin herself to take NewJeans and become independent from both ADOR and HYBE.
This is part of the first trial judgment on NewJeans’ exclusive contract last year. In the ruling, which ADOR won, the name of former ADOR CEO ‘Min Hee-jin’ was mentioned over 100 times. KakaoTalk chat records between former CEO Min and her close associates were used as crucial evidence for this judgment.
Of course, former CEO Min did not accept this. She later appeared on the YouTube channel ‘Genre Man Yeouido’ and said, “The reason why it doesn’t make sense to bring a third party’s trial into my trial is that I couldn’t refute the evidence at all because it wasn’t my trial. I disagree with the conclusion reached in a situation where I couldn’t refute even if I had evidence.”
Then, as she said, there should have been refutation in her own lawsuit. There were several lawsuits related to HYBE, and multiple trial dates were held. In the shareholders’ agreement lawsuit, former CEO Min even appeared in court three times, undergoing about 12 hours of party examination.
However, unfortunately, it was difficult to find any meaningful rebuttal. This was because former CEO Min consistently adopted a strategy of blaming others or feigning ignorance.
In court, numerous KakaoTalk messages between former CEO Min and the former vice president, who was her closest confidant and the author of the ‘HYBE’s 7 Sins’ document, were revealed. These included reports of meetings with asset management company officials and gatherings with venture capital representatives. However, former CEO Min continued to testify that she couldn’t remember and that it was the former vice president acting alone. She also blamed HYBE, claiming that she was responding to HYBE’s initial harassment.
The blame-shifting strategy continued in the recent sudden emergency press conference (3rd). Although former CEO Min did not attend, her side attributed the meeting with Dabo Link Chairman Park Jung-gyu, who had been implicated in tampering allegations, to NewJeans members’ uncle. Despite HYBE’s prior dissuasion, Min Hee-jin’s side also showed suspicion towards HYBE, claiming that HYBE benefited from such reports about the meeting with Dabo Link.
Former CEO Min’s day of reckoning is just two days away. The first trial verdict for the confirmation of termination of the shareholders’ agreement with HYBE and the claim for stock purchase payment (put option lawsuit) will be delivered on the 12th. Attention is focused on the outcome of the put option exercise payment, which amounts to about 26 billion KRW (19.5 million USD).
[Sports Today Reporter Yoon Hye-young ent@stoo.com]
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