HYBE began to oust Min Hee Jin after she demanded an internal investigation into HYBE

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On the morning of May 17 at KST, the 50th civil court division of the Seoul Central District Court convened for a hearing in the ongoing legal dispute between HYBE Labels and CEO Min Hee Jin of ADOR. The lawsuit, filed by Min Hee Jin against HYBE, requests that the court ban HYBE from exercising its voting rights at ADOR’s scheduled extraordinary shareholder’s meeting later this month.

This article is continued from the earlier posts: “Legal reps exchange accusatory remarks at civil court hearing in HYBE vs. Min Hee Jin lawsuit” and “Bang Si Hyuk submits a petition letter to the court on behalf of HYBE, urging ‘freedom of creativity’“.

During this court hearing, Min Hee Jin’s side, represented by Sejong Law Firm, revealed the full contents of an email sent by Min Hee Jin to HYBE executives in early April.

In the email, Min Hee Jin wrote, “HYBE suggested the tactic of ‘advanced purchasing’ 100,000 albums. The company insisted that upon the release of ‘Get Up‘, NewJeans would be able to beat aespa in first-week sales with this tactic. However, this clearly violates ADOR’s business philosophy, so I turned down the suggestion.”

She then added on, “I am well aware of the fact that this tactic is pervasively used in all of the labels under HYBE. Yet, I must request a transparent investigation and proper measures in response to any cases of exchanges negotiated under the condition of returns, and other exchanges which may be seen as ‘advanced purchases’.”

(The ‘advanced purchase’ tactic mentioned by Min Hee Jin here was also cause for issue earlier this year, when some netizens raised suspicions that SM Entertainment boy group RIIZE had likely used the tactic for their debut album.)

Additionally, Min Hee Jin’s email mentioned other shocking suspicions. The producer claimed that HYBE was currently negotiating payments with overseas producers over issues of plagiarism directed at LE SSERAFIM, and that HYBE’s brand partnership department went behind ADOR’s back to secure a brand endorsement deal for LE SSERAFIM with a brand which initially wished to work with NewJeans.

Full translation of email to follow.