These allegations were made in a hearing on December 18, when HYBE Group and Min Hee Jin were conducting lawsuits related to the termination of shareholder agreements and exercise of shares sale rights.
HYBE announced that Min Hee Jin, as CEO of ADOR (NewJeans management company), signed favorable contracts with Kim Ki Hyun - CEO of BANA music production company - due to the relationship between the two.
BANA became known to the public when the company's internal producers 250 (Lee Ho Hyeong) and FRNK (Park Jinsu) participated in composing many of NewJeans' hits, starting with their debut song "Attention" written in 2020.
Min Hee Jin admitted that BANA CEO Kim Ki Hyun was her ex-boyfriend, but she stated that the money Kim Ki Hyun and BANA received was deserved, not personal favor.
During the hearing, HYBE presented a service contract related to NewJeans' operations. Under the contract, ADOR paid BANA 33 million won per month to provide exclusive A&R services (artists and music documentation warehouses), pay for additional personnel costs in addition to CEO Kim's remuneration, and provide a bonus equivalent to 5% of NewJeans' total album sales in the release year.
After that, Min Hee Jin wrote a commitment to share part of the expected amount of money received from exercising the right to sell shares with Kim. Therefore, the contract with BANA has had its bonus structure revised so that Kim can receive 3% of NewJeans' total album revenue accumulated in the past and future.
As a result, Kim's annual bonus increased from about 400 million won to 1 billion won.
Based on these terms, BANA is said to have received the service fee in 2022, which is about 2 times the total payment that all NewJeans members received in the same year.
In fact, Kim's annual income is higher than Min Hee Jin's salary - considered one of the highest in HYBE Group, if it includes 5% of album revenue, this is an unprecedentedly generous contract.
HYBE also said that this contract was signed without the approval of the board of directors.
However, Min Hee Jin affirmed that BANA's music is the core factor that created NewJeans' outstanding success and that remuneration is reasonable according to industry standards.
Regarding the decision to share the money from the right to sell shares with Kim, Min Hee Jin said that it was not related to personal relationships, but only a desire to requite a talented producer.
Min Hee Jin argues that, unlike composers, Kim does not receive copyright money, so she is falling into a "blind spot" in the industry's remuneration structure.
Min Hee Jin also emphasized that Kim's payments did not exceed what she paid BANA as a company, and reaffirmed that 1 billion won was not too high, citing that many other K-pop producers had earned hundreds of billions of won.
