🔗 [Full Text] Min Hee-jin “They claimed it was for NewJeans, but it’s unilateral media play by HYBE”

Hello.

This is Macoll Consulting Group, responsible for media communication along with law firm Shin & Kim, representing former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin.

We are issuing a statement regarding the unfairness of the “Task Delegation Contract” regarding producing duties sent by the ADOR board to former CEO Min Hee-jin and to address the parts incorrectly reported in the media.

On August 27, the ADOR board announced to the press that former CEO Min Hee-jin “will continue to handle the producing duties for NewJeans.”

However, this was unilateral media play completely irrelevant to former CEO Min Hee-jin’s own will, and she never agreed to any of the reported contents.

Subsequently, on August 28, Kim Ju-young, the Chair of ADOR’s Board of Directors, sent a contract titled “Task Delegation Contract” to former CEO Min Hee-jin.

The content is too unilateral and unreasonable to be viewed as a proposal to take on the producing duties as stated to the press, making it difficult to understand from a common-sense perspective.

◇ Ultra-Short-Term Producing Contract of 2 Months

The contract period specified in the Task Delegation Contract is from August 27, 2024, to November 1, 2024, a total period of merely 2 months and 6 days.

NewJeans successfully completed their fan meeting at Tokyo Dome in Japan last June and is planning a world tour in 2025. It is surprising that they think producing for an idol group preparing for a world tour can be completed in just two months. With this, the ADOR directors appointed by HYBE are proving their own lack of understanding regarding core duties.

Looking at the nonsensical contract period alone, it seems clear that the ADOR board’s claim that “all decisions are the best decisions for NewJeans” was fiction and media play.

◇ Unilateral Contract Termination by ADOR Board (HYBE) Possible at Any Time

The Task Delegation Contract is full of toxic clauses that allow ADOR to terminate the contract based on its unilateral intent.

Even the contract period of two months can be shortened at ADOR’s (practically HYBE’s) will.

The contract stipulates that ADOR can immediately terminate the contract if it judges former CEO Min Hee-jin’s work performance to be significantly insufficient. There are no clauses regarding any objective grounds or criteria.

Furthermore, even cases where maintaining the contract is difficult due to ADOR’s business circumstances, or cases judged by ADOR’s CEO according to ADOR’s needs, are defined as grounds for immediate termination of the contract. This stipulates that ADOR (practically HYBE) can terminate the contract at will at any time. It is a ploy leaving a path open to exclude her from the relevant duties at any time, for any reason.

Also, contrary to the externally announced justification of separating “management and production,” the contract contains contradictions such as stating that termination is possible if “management performance, etc., is judged to be significantly poor” despite her being a producer. It is filled with unreasonable clauses, such as enforcing “compliance with excessively broad regulations” or setting the “non-compete period at six times the contract length” despite the contract period being only two months.

It is an undeniable fact that ADOR and NewJeans have achieved unprecedented success by being recognized for their originality and distinctiveness under the leadership of former CEO Min Hee-jin.

Nevertheless, the act of sending a contract with such nonsensical content makes one question the sincerity of whether HYBE truly wants to entrust the continuous producing of NewJeans to former CEO Min Hee-jin. This can only be regarded as an act intended to intentionally “induce a refusal of the producer contract” to use as a foundation for another round of media play.

The ADOR board has demanded that she sign this unreasonable contract by today, the 30th. However, former CEO Min Hee-jin has determined that signing is impossible, and at the same time, conveys this position to prepare for the possibility of distorted articles being reported again.