The legal fight between HYBE and former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin has been a hot topic for nearly two years now. Now, it has unexpectedly drawn in one of the company’s biggest artists, V of BTS.
On February 20, a Korean media outlet obtained an original ruling from Seoul Central District Court in the shareholder contract lawsuit between HYBE and Min Hee Jin. The court rejected most of HYBE’s claims and ruled largely in Min’s favor. In its written decision, the court criticized HYBE for escalating an internal conflict.
Judges pointed to the company’s April 22, 2024 exclusive media report. Plus, the immediate audit of ADOR pushed the dispute into the public eye.
The court stated that Min Hee Jin’s earlier protest emails on April 3 and April 16 suggested the matter was still internal at that stage. It concluded that HYBE was the first to bring the issue to the media, effectively breaking trust. The ruling also noted that on the same day HYBE launched its audit and began dismissal procedures against her.
Another key issue was Min Hee Jin’s claim that rookie group ILLIT had copied NewJeans. The court determined that her statement that “ILLIT copied NewJeans” could not be treated as a factual accusation. Instead, it described the remark as an expression of opinion about overall similarity. Because of that, it did not amount to defamation.
It was within this broader context that V’s private messages surfaced.
According to the court documents, V had exchanged KakaoTalk messages with Min during the early days of the plagiarism controversy. In one message, he wrote that he looked into the issue and thought, “Oh, this is similar.” The court accepted the messages as part of the evidence record. HYBE Chairman Bang Si Hyuk was heavily involved in producing ILLIT’s debut album, which dropped in March 2024.
Shortly after the ruling became public, V released a statement addressing the situation directly. He expressed discomfort with messages being made public, “These are parts of private conversations shared out of empathy because the person was my acquaintance.”
For those unversed, Min Hee Jin creatively led V’$ debut album, Layover, in 2023. Since then, she has repeatedly praised the 30-year-old K-pop star, even during the height of her dispute with HYBE. She received backlash from fans for using V’s name to earn sympathy from fans.
V made it clear that he has “no intention of taking any side.”
He also added, “I am very disturbed that the conversations in question were submitted as evidence without my consent.”
As a result of this lawsuit, NewJeans has been on hiatus for almost two years. Min Hee Jin is accused of tampering and breaking up the successful girl group. Meanwhile, ADOR won a lawsuit against NewJeans, and now three out of four members have already returned to the label. Danielle is no longer part of the group, and talks are ongoing with Minji.
HYBE and ADOR have filed another over 43 billion won lawsuit against Min Hee Jin, former NewJeans member Danielle, and her family member.