Recent events in Korea really drive home just how insignificant entertainment updates can be, and due to the ongoing mourning period, the appropriate dearth of updates to come shows as much.
On that heavy note, I did promise you guys I’d catch up on the HYBE/ADOR case (which is no longer a HYBE/ADOR case, but I digress) because obviously it’s still a huge story and I’ve been slacking in post-World Series orgasmic bliss (and being lazy), so here we are.
Let’s go.
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Okay, before all hell broke loose over Thanksgiving, there were further lawsuit filings revealed. ILLIT’s creative director Serian Heu sued former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin (and other ADOR execs) over the plagiarism row. Min Hee Jin then sued BELIFT LAB CEO Kim Tae Ho, Deputy CEO Choi Yoon Hyuk, Creative Director Serian Heu, and vocal coach Lee Ka Jun for defamation, as well as BELIFT itself. She also filed a criminal complaint against HYBE Chief Public Relations Officer Park Tae Hee and Public Relations Room Leader Cho Sung Hoon on the charges of breach of professional duty, apparently regarding the incident of a recording of HYBE PR getting out.
Lot of lawsuits there and more to come.
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After Thanksgiving, in early December, Dispatch did an expose on Min Hee Jin. It starts by recapping the disparaging comments she made about NewJeans, then moves on to saying she knew about the live broadcast by the members and spoke through them, publishing texts she made to NewJeans family members about it. I think most people figured that was the case, but the texts Dispatch revealed reportedly confirm it.
Dispatch then speculates that Min Hee Jin knew Hanni would appear at the audit.
The night before the audit on October 8, 2024, Dispatch caught Hanni visiting Min Hee Jin’s studio. Dispatch claimed that the legal documents wielded in hand by Hanni were likely to be a summons from the officials due to the audit, leading Dispatch to believe that she had a talk with Min Hee Jin the night before the audit.
Speculative, but also wouldn’t surprise anybody, I think. The point is likely more to establish a pattern of Min Hee Jin using them to speak herself.
Arguably the most relevant reveal to the court case is the allegation that Min Hee Jin has links to company DAVOLINK through Hyein‘s uncle. This had been speculated before, but Min Hee Jin denied any connection, but Dispatch reports she met with them at the end of September and has pictures.
According to Dispatch, B asked A if A could invest around 5 billion KRW, and they reportedly discussed various matters for three hours. Two days after the meeting, on October 2, Davolink announced plans to appoint new directors. However, Min Hee-jin later denied any contact with Davolink. Subsequently, A removed B from the proposed list of directors.
Commenting on the situation, A stated, “They directly came to my house, saying they wanted to meet. And yet they claim there was no contact at all? Their lies caused the stock price to plummet by 50% in a short period. It’s absolutely absurd.”
It’s relevant because it brings up suspicions of tampering if it’s shown to be true.
Dispatch close with texts from Min Hee Jin, showing her allegedly trying to use sexual means on a HYBE executive to curry favor.
- “I flirted heavily with [redacted] LOL.”
- “I made him come closer saying I couldn’t hear him, sitting closer to him.”
- “I think I can make him totally fall for me if I just sleep with him once…”
- “It’s not that I want to lobby using my body, but if sleeping with him will make things easier, then I can.”
The shaman also comes back into play here, as Dispatch says she casted love spells on 4-5 men in her quest to secure NewJeans. I guess this is basically revealed to discredit Min Hee Jin further, though it struck me a bit weird to use after coming through with a tampering connection that could actually be serious and relevant. The shaman returning is a great day for shitposters, though.
In response to this, Min Hee Jin filed charges against former HYBE CEO Park Ji Won and HYBE CPO Park Tae Hee for basically illegal privacy violations and manipulation, also charging Dispatch reporters Kim Ji Ho and Park Hye Jin for defamation. Additionally, the NewJeans fandom filed complaints against HYBE, Source Music, and Dispatch for illegally leaking personal information and defamation.
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Later, ADOR’s treatment of NewJeans’ staff came to the forefront, as the group alluded to the company harassing their staff. A current staff member spoke to the news about the situation.
They bothered the performance director and other staff with unnecessary, frequent meetings, and bullied them. They asked the managers for their personal phones. They even forced them to stay in the office for more than three hours, not allowing them to go home.
ADOR responded to the allegations by clarifying that the confrontation was actually about a manager trying to bypass the company to negotiate a deal with the advertiser and the group.
Recently, an employee responsible for artist management directly contacted an advertiser, bypassing the company, and attempted to facilitate a direct contract between the artist and the brand. The manager has admitted to engaging in this communication. This constitutes a serious breach of company policy, as it assists in violating the artist’s exclusive contract.
They go on to say they weren’t able to gather evidence from the laptop after it was recovered due to it being formatted but say they will take legal action.
Apparently, this was regarding Danielle’s recent ad with OMEGA.
Welcome to the OMEGA family. A radiant debut from Danielle Marsh. The New Constellation sparkles with her signature style. https://t.co/7QPNLaRMEB#OMEGA#Constellation pic.twitter.com/Y3Sf79H8QR
— OMEGA (@omegawatches) December 17, 2024
Honestly not sure how that works out, but the ad is still up and the company doesn’t seem too care much about the mess. I assume that either got hashed out behind the scenes or will change depending on where the legal stuff falls.
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Speaking of, continuing a recent trend, I don’t have a ton to say here that I haven’t already said, as I’m honestly ready for things to start getting hashed out legally. I think that’s understandable given how much of the news updates ARE about filing ever-increasing lawsuits. Also probably just fatigue and I’m ready for a new year to start. I would encourage people to be normal in discussing it, but these are consistently some of the least normal threads on the site (including ones that are 99% about dongs and cum), so we all know we’ve crossed the event horizon on that.
