“This is ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin’s legal representative, Sejong…”

On May 30, Min Hee Jin‘s lawyers released a statement after the courts ruled that they would grant the ADOR CEO’s injunction against HYBE.

The full statement is translated below.

Hello.

This is ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin’s legal representative, Sejong.

On April 22, 2024, HYBE requested a shareholder’s meeting in relation to terminating Min Hee Jin, which will be held on May 31. However, this is a violation of the contract between Min Hee Jin and HYBE, therefore on May 7, 2024, Min Hee Jin filed an injunction to stop HYBE from using their shareholder’s rights.

On the afternoon of May 30, 2024, Seoul’s Central Court has ruled to grant the injunction. Therefore, HYBE will not be allowed to use their voting rights in the shareholder’s meeting held on May 31, 2024. If HYBE violates this and uses its rights to terminate Min Hee Jin and ADOR’s executives, they will have to forfeit ₩20.0 billion KRW (about $14.6 million USD) to Min Hee Jin.

Since the injunction on May 7, 2024, HYBE has submitted large amount of documents 11 times. Min Hee Jin’s representatives responded to this  by submitting documents 9 times in which we refuted each claim. Today, the court considered each side before making the decision to grant the injunction. This means the court ruled that HYBE’s reckless witch hunt through the media were not correct.

The focal argument in this case was that whether 1. HYBE can disregard the contract in which it states that HYBE will have to use their voting rights to ensure that Min Hee Jin and ADOR’s executives will remain for 5 years, and 2. Whether HYBE had just cause to fire Min Hee Jin.

The agreement to bind voting rights was agreed on by both HYBE and Min Hee Jin, therefore it is only right that they abide by it. HYBE rejected this despite it being in clear writing. The court, however, ruled that the wording in the shareholder agreement was clear and ruled against HYBE’s argument.

As for whether HYBE had just cause to terminate Min Hee Jin, despite all of the Kakao Talk conversations submitted by HYBE, the court also rejected HYBE’s argument. As such, HYBE has failed to prove there was just cause for her dismissal, and is the biggest reason why the injuction was granted.

Since HYBE’s illegal audit began on April 22, 2024, materials obtained illegally by HYBE were released to the public indiscriminately. However, these conversations were maliciously edited to spark a witch hunt against Min Hee Jin. HYBE failed to provide any evidence to support their claims.

During the trial, these maliciously edited conversations were spread by third parties in the press, and even now, YouTubers and bloggers are editing the messages, which violates and defames Min Hee Jin and ADOR executive’s private lives. To this, we are planning on taking legal action, so we ask you to take down these videos immediately.

Furthermore, we ask that HYBE accept and abide by the ruling for the injunction. If HYBE takes action to terminate Min Hee Jin and ADOR’s executives, it would be a clear violation of the shareholder agreement. Also, as there are no grounds for Min Hee Jin’s termination, there are no grounds to dismiss the two ADOR executives. Therefore, if HYBE were to terminate them, this would mean HYBE has ignored the court’s ruling and has terminated them without just cause.

Thank you.

— Min Hee Jin’s legal representative, Sejong

Previously, the court ruled in favor of granting Min Hee Jin’s injunction against HYBE. You can read more about it in the link below.

Min Hee Jin Reportedly Wins Injunction Against HYBE

Source: chosun ilbo