Min Hee Jin says she raised plagiarism claim against ILLIT to protect NewJeans

Former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin has once again explained why she raised plagiarism allegations against ILLIT.

Min Hee Jin appeared at a court hearing on the afternoon of December 18 at the Seoul Central District Court’s Civil Division 31, presided over by Chief Judge Nam In Soo, in a lawsuit seeking payment for a stock sale tied to the exercise of her put option against HYBE. During the proceedings, she stated, “I wanted to protect NewJeans.”

Min Hee Jin reiterated that her decision to take issue with alleged plagiarism by ILLIT was “to protect NewJeans.”

“If you think about my true motive logically, it’s actually simple,” she said. “If I had stayed quiet, I could have exercised the put option in one or two years anyway. Who would act the way I did otherwise? This wasn’t about a simple plagiarism dispute. Chairman Bang Si Hyuk went too far. After making things so difficult from debut onward, I felt like everything that could be extracted had already been taken.”

She continued, “From the perspective of the ADOR CEO, NewJeans suffers all the damage. A CEO could stay quiet and collect the money, but the harm goes directly to NewJeans. Protecting them is the CEO’s responsibility.” She added, “People tend to take plagiarism and similarity issues lightly, but for someone, this is about survival.”

Min Hee Jin further claimed that HYBE, as the parent company, failed to properly support ADOR. “They didn’t pay attention; there were issues not only with plagiarism but also with a lack of promotion—everything imaginable. If I hadn’t raised objections over plagiarism, they would have denied it outright. That’s why I formally raised the issue,” she said.

In early November last year, Min Hee Jin notified HYBE of her intent to exercise a put option on her ADOR shares. Under the shareholder agreement, the valuation period for the put option was set as 2022–2023. ADOR posted an operating loss of 4 billion KRW in 2022 and an operating profit of 33.5 billion KRW in 2023. The 2022 loss is believed to be because NewJeans, ADOR’s sole artist at the time, debuted in July of that year.

According to ADOR’s audit report disclosed in April last year, Min owns 573,160 shares of ADOR, representing an 18 percent stake. Based on this, the amount she could receive is estimated to reach approximately 26 billion KRW.

HYBE argues that the put option is invalid because the shareholder agreement was terminated in July. Min, however, counters that there was no breach of the shareholder agreement on her part and that HYBE’s termination notice therefore has no legal effect.