Min Hee Jin’s Private Conversation With Employees Targeting HYBE Artists Stirs Up Heat

Former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin reportedly put her employees up to the task of digging up dirt on multiple HYBE artists.

On November 5, KST, Sports DongA reported on newly revealed KakaoTalk messages between Min Hee Jin and a subordinate, showing the former mentioning multiple HYBE artists by name and instructing them to search for incriminating evidence in an internal messenger (Slack) conversation.

The Kakaotalk messages were included as a part of the written judgment in the first trial of the lawsuit filed by ADOR on October 30 to confirm the validity of its exclusive contracts with NJZ (NewJeans) members.

According to the ruling, while serving as the CEO of ADOR, Min instructed an employee to investigate whether there was any basis for filing a lawsuit for obstruction of business. She specifically mentioned, “whether it’s a Fair-Trade Act violation, a breach of the Commercial Act, breach of trust, anything, just look for it.” She emphasized that the employee’s designated task was to find more decisive material for this purpose.

Min reportedly mentioned the real names of several HYBE artists and asked the subordinate to comb through the company’s internal messenger to find any statements that could be used against them.

The court reportedly regarded these newly submitted Kakaotalk messages, in which Slack was mentioned, as evidence of Min Hee Jin’s preliminary efforts to create negative public attention against HYBE. The court noted, “The reasons the defendants (NewJeans members) claim for the plaintiff’s (ADOR’s) breach of obligation appear to be the result of Min Hee Jin’s prior efforts to carefully examine all materials shared among HYBE, ADOR, and the defendants, and to find elements necessary for generating negative public sentiment and filing lawsuits against HYBE.”