Min Hee-jin appeals to emotions vs. HYBE, who started the revelation war, the beginning of a muddy family fight

Adore CEO Min Hee-jin and HYBE are continuing their muddy expose.

At 3 p.m. on the 25th, CEO Min Hee-jin held an emergency press conference and refuted HYBE's claims for 2 hours and 15 minutes. CEO Min attracted attention with his emotional appearance throughout, mentioning the real names of HYBE employees and using profanity.

On this day, CEO Min appeared wearing a green Sprite T-shirt and a blue cap. Representative Min reacted angrily, saying, "I have already become a witch," and "HYBE is trying to kill me. Will it end only if I die?"

Regarding the suspicion of usurping management rights, which is the core of this issue, CEO Min denied, saying, "I never planned, intended, or executed the usurpation of management rights." At the same time, he raised his voice and said, "I said I met someone to receive investment to usurp management rights. Please bring me here who it is."

CEO Min said, "There was a situation where I was pressured that I could never leave HYBE because of the contract between shareholders. Eyelet, a copy of NewJeans, also appeared. I felt that they were trying to stop me and kill me." He added, "In that situation, I came out as if I was having fun as I imagined. “It’s a story that happened,” he claimed. However, some are criticizing the vague and light response to the specific circumstances surrounding the theft of management rights, which is the most important, by calling it 'the complaint of an office worker' or 'the complaint while playing among ourselves'.

At this press conference, CEO Min confessed that there was a conflict between HYBE and NewJeans even before their debut. With the debut of NewJeans in mind, promotional points such as 'HYBE's first girl group' and 'Min Hee-jin girl group' were allowed, but it is claimed that Source Music's Le Seraphim stole them. In addition, he raised his voice saying that even after that, he received unreasonable requests such as 'please stop promoting NewJeans'. At the same time, he again claimed, “Aillet, which recently debuted, is also a copy of NewJeans.”

Min Hee-jin said, "I am curious about the intention of selling Saddam by portraying it as something serious," and emphasized, "It is not that I betrayed HYBE, but HYBE betrayed me. It is a frame to suck up and press down as much as possible."

Representative Min's lawyer also argued that "usurpation of management rights is impossible in a situation where the shareholding ratio is 80% (HYBE) vs. 20% (CEO Min's side)." Another lawyer on CEO Min's side said, "Breach of trust is established when an act that undermines the company's value is committed, but we have not found any attempt to commit such an act or any attempt to carry out such an act."

On the other hand, HYBE said about CEO Min Hee-jin's press conference, "There are so many untrue contents that it is difficult to list them all," and added, "CEO Min misled the point by mixing viewpoints and distorted it with a unique refracted interpretation mechanism. “The facts were announced in a public place,” he said.

They also said, “We can refute all claims with evidence, but we decided not to mention them one by one because we judged it not worth responding to.”

HYBE said, “CEO Min should stop lying, such as saying ‘there was no offer to talk’ or ‘there was no response to emails,’ and return the information assets as requested and promptly respond to the audit,” adding, “He has already proven himself unqualified to be a manager. He urged him to resign as soon as possible for the normal management of Adore.

At the same time, he requested, “Please stop continuously mentioning NewJeans’ parents as it is damaging to the value of the artist.”

Previously, HYBE reported that CEO Min had instructed management to 'develop a way to pressure HYBE to sell its shares of Adore.' Accordingly, HYBE claims that Adore discussed ways to become independent from HYBE with NewJeans.

HYBE submitted a complaint to the Yongsan Police Station in Seoul against CEO Min and Shin, Vice President of Adore, on charges of breach of trust, claiming that it had secured concrete facts and physical evidence showing that a plan to seize management rights of its subsidiary Adore was established under the leadership of CEO Min.

However, right before CEO Min Hee-jin's press conference, HYBE distributed a press release saying, "CEO Min Hee-jin has been engaging in serious witchcraft management," attracting attention with a response that took on the aspect of a debunking campaign.

Choi Ji-ye, Ten Asia Reporter wisdomart@tenasia.co.kr