On November 27, the Seoul Central District Court opened the next hearing related to two lawsuits: a lawsuit by HYBE Group requesting confirmation of the validity of terminating the shareholder agreement with Min Hee Jin, and a counter-suit by Min Hee Jin requesting HYBE to pay the amount according to the right to sell shares.
Like the September hearing, the court continued the direct questioning of Min Hee Jin.
At the trial, Min Hee Jin spoke up to reject HYBE's claim that she had directed NewJeans to send a notice to terminate the exclusive contract with management company ADOR (in November 2024).
She said: "People have seen my KakaoTalk message. I even planned a global tour for NewJeans. The termination of the contract does not bring any benefits to me at all.
If I do nothing, I can exercise the right to sell shares. And is there a case of an exclusive contract being terminated just because someone said that?".
Min Hee Jin also criticized the behavior that she thought was a copy of Source Music (the management company of ILLIT): I think they kept pushing like that because they wanted to make things difficult for me. When I spoke about resetting up relationships, I mean they dont underestimate us.
I wondered if they thought that because I didn't have Bang Si Hyuk's support, they could publicly copy and ignore me. Being copied by a company in the same system is completely disrespectful.
She continued: I sent an email to Chairman Bang Si Hyuk, asking if they were hiring me just to freely copy my work, or if they thought that when I joined the company, there would be nothing to do. I mean: Don't underestimate us. I want them to take action to fix it.
Last April, the conflict between Min Hee Jin and HYBE broke out, when HYBE suddenly conducted an audit of ADOR, suspecting Min Hee Jin and her associates of plotting to take over the company, taking NewJeans out of ADOR.
By August 2024, HYBE's board of directors had voted to remove Min Hee Jin from the position of CEO of ADOR. Min Hee Jin said that the conflict escalated because she opposed Source Music's ILLIT group plagiarizing NewJeans, leading to HYBE's " retaliation".
In November 2024, Min Hee Jin officially resigned as an internal director at ADOR and informed HYBE that she wanted to exercise the right to sell shares worth about 26 billion won. HYBE responded that this right is no longer valid because the shareholder agreement has been terminated since July 2024.
Min Hee Jin's side argued that she did not violate any terms, so HYBE's announcement had no legal value. She then filed a lawsuit asking HYBE to pay, bringing the total amount of the dispute to about 28.7 billion won.
The legal battle between Min Hee Jin and HYBE is still attracting great public attention, as the results of the lawsuit could reshape discussions about the autonomy of subsidiaries in a corporation, artist management and transparency in business operations in Kpop.
