Everything Min Hee Jin said at her press conference

In the early hours of this Thursday, 25th, after HYBE announced through a provisional report on the audit of the case against ADOR that it will open a formal accusation against Min Hee JinCEO of the subsidiary, the businesswoman called an emergency press conference to clarify the events and expose new facts.

Hee Jin began the press conference by stating that everything happened suddenly, and that she did not expect an audit. Furthermore, the producer also says that her plan was to make an official statement on the matter after the new album by NewJeans be resolved.

“I was involved in several problems, and this coincided with the upcoming release of the new NewJeans album. Initially, I wanted to make a statement after the NewJeans album was resolved to a certain extent. And for me, this was all so sudden. And I didn’t expect things like an audit. All of this started suddenly on Monday and has reached here”, began Min Hee Jin at the press conference (via Koreaboo).

The businesswoman continued by stating that “The perspective I see and the perspective HYBE sees seem to be very different.” According to her, the conglomerate’s accusations about its alleged attempt to steal management rights for financial reasons make no sense, since it owns its own shares and other personal businesses.

“It makes no sense to say that I stole the management rights for money. I already have shares contracted and I have a lot of things that I received, which I cannot disclose”, explained Hee Jin (via Soompi). “But the various points released by HYBE now are all to their advantage. The points listed in detail are all false from my point of view.”

Min Hee Jin He completes his speech by stating that “I am a ‘salaried CEO’. I don’t know why a salaried CEO works so much and becomes a target. […] I didn’t betray HYBE, but HYBE betrayed me. I feel like they are trying to frame me to repress me.”

Still on financial issues, the CEO of ADOR also defended herself by stating that, if she had been looking for money, she would not have filed an internal accusation about the alleged plagiarism committed by ILLIT, a new girl group from BeLift Lab (also a subsidiary of HYBE) which, in his words, he would have copied the NewJeans concept.

“If I wanted money, I wouldn’t have made an internal accusation. I can earn at least 100 billion won (approximately $73 million) just by sitting still. But I can’t bear to see what I don’t like, so I have to talk about it. That’s why I’m suffering,” she declared.

BTS, LE SSERAFIM, IVE, GFRIEND, ILLIT and aespa

During the press conference, Hee Jin also mentioned other major K-pop groups. First, the businesswoman justified herself about the accusation made by HYBE last Tuesday, the 23rd, that she had said in a meeting that BTS had copied her, stating that the statement was false.

“I never said, ‘BTS stole my stuff.’ But HYBE was worried that it would turn into defamation, so they said, ‘She said something like BTS stole my stuff.’” stated Hee Jin.

Regarding ILLIT’s plagiarism, the CEO also made a point of clarifying that the group’s members are not the problem in the situation, but rather the adults responsible for its production, who made them perform something copied.

“ILLIT is not the problem here. It was the adults who made them copy. They didn’t talk about it properly and just turned me into someone who said something weird. It’s a breach of trust to simply look and ignore. They say they are a multi-brand system, but they don’t let me have an independent voice. If someone can imitate someone else, those who don’t have the same thing are disappointed. Then everyone becomes NewJeans. It’s bad for us and the industry. It has a negative influence on the industry. It causes harm to shareholders, so how can we ignore it?”

Regarding the accusation that she was responsible for the disbandment of GFRIEND after taking the members of NewJeans, who were trainees at Source Music, to ADOR, Min Hee Jin declared that she has no involvement in the girl group’s breakup, and that she doesn’t understand why they are blaming her over the matter.

“To begin with, there was a problem with the trainee selection process. I don’t know why everyone is blaming me for their breakup. I have nothing to do with it. I’m someone who only cares about my own work. […] I feel sorry for the group, but the label’s branding was so bad that people wouldn’t apply to audition because of GFRIEND. And that was before HYBE was created as a multiple brand.”

During your explanation of GFRIEND, Hee Jin also said that, initially, the project for HYBE’s first girl group, which would be NewJeans, started from Minji, and that the set would be released by Source Music. However, the CEO claims that she felt betrayed after the change of plans, so that the new group would be centered on Sakura It is Chaewon — LE SSERAFIM.

According to the businesswoman, the fact caused the debut of NewJeans to be postponed, in addition to having received the request for Park Ji WonCEO of HYBE, to not carry out any promotion of NewJeans until LE SSERAFIM debuted.

“Park Ji Won asked me not to promote NewJeans until LE SSERAFIM made its debut. I asked why, and he said that we needed to make the audience think that LE SSERAFIM is Min Hee Jin’s girl group. That we needed the audience to be confused between the two. Do you think this makes sense? Why are they such thugs? I’ve already welcomed the girls. I can’t give up on their debut. So what should I have done? Hit back? I just thought to myself, ok, it’s fine, even if you guys try to create disturbances for me, I just have to do as well as I can. So I got some boycotts. To stop me from promoting NewJeans.”

Finally, Hee Jin he also exposed a conversation on the Kakaotalk app that he had in 2021 with Bang Si Hyuk, main producer of HYBE and founder of the company, where he asks her to “overcome aespa”. The conversation says:

Bang Si Hyuk: You can overcome aespa, right? Heh.

Min Hee Jin: Hahaha.

Bang Si Hyuk: Hahaha. I’ll leave that to you then (emoji). When are we going to have a drink?

Bang Si Hyuk: Forget about aespa and let’s build Min Hee Jin World.

Min Hee Jin: I just…

Bang Si Hyuk: Don’t worry.

Min Hee Jin: LOL, I’m not worried. I just wonder if [redigido] you have to say these things [redigido].

Even while revealing his cell phone conversations with Bang Si Hyukthe CEO of ADOR also stated that, despite Sakura It is Chaewon Having a consolidated fandom due to their IZ*ONE days, the producer was worried about the debut of LE SSERAFIM thanks to the success of IVE, a group that is also made up of two former members of IZ*ONE.

“Sakura and Chaewon already had a fandom, but IVE was also already doing really well, so they [os grupos] could overlap (go against each other). So Bang PD didn’t have confidence in their new girl group,” Hee Jin revealed.

NewJeans reaction

Before ending the press conference, Min Hee Jin he also stated that he received support from the members of NewJeans and their parents regarding the dispute against HYBE, in addition to guaranteeing again that the girl group’s comeback will continue as planned.

“Of course, we will continue [o comeback] as planned. Why should we suffer because of HYBE?”, said the businesswoman.

As for his relationship with the members, Hee Jin says that they are all close enough to support each other in difficult times, and that she was contacted by the idols in the last few days.

“The members are going through difficult times. We’re close enough to comfort each other, and they always text me saying they love me every day. Hanni kept saying she wanted to come to where I am, and Haerin, who is usually quiet, even video called me. She was going to text me, but she called me to hear my voice because she couldn’t pronounce the words. It made me wonder if this is what it’s like to raise a child. Hyein cried for 20 minutes on the phone. She cried because I helped her when she had a hard time, but she couldn’t do anything to help me. She even said she would turn on the Phoning app [plataforma de conversas entre idols e fãs] and explain the situation.”

Finally, as reported by Soompi, the CEO of ADOR also declared in tears that she received words of comfort from the mothers of NewJeans. According to her, “The members’ mother also said that ‘public opinion has turned upside down and is right before the president’s execution’, so she told me to tell everything. I no longer need to take care of NewJeans. I don’t have that desire. What do I do with NewJeans? It’s not like that. But NewJeans is really like my son, so I feel that way. It’s so sad to leave my kids at HYBE and leave.”