Bang Si Hyuk ‘copied’ Min Hee Jin ‘to create BTS’? ADOR CEO-HYBE row explained

Amid her row with the K-pop super-label, she’s name-dropped several other groups in the conversation as well, including Belift Lab’s rookie girl group ILLIT, BigHit sensation BTS, Pledis Entertainment’s recently launched boy group TWS and even groups that don’t share HYBE’s multi-label banner, like SM Entertainment’s RIIZE.

Here’s everything that has come to light in the contentious rift between HYBE and Min Hee Jin since April 22.

HYBE-Min Hee Jin row explained

1. BTS’s audit of subsidiary label ADOR, including Min Hee Jin

On April 22, media reports emerged, suggesting that HYBE had begun auditing the sub-label ADOR (home to NewJeans), founded by Min Hee Jin in 2021. While HYBE holds an 80% stake in the subsidiary, with the remaining 20% held by Min Hee Jin and her allies, the recent headlines highlighted the ADOR CEO’s alleged attempts to buy out the sub-label, initiating its independent status beyond HYBE’s control.

A shareholders’ meeting was called to session to play out actions that would suppress ADOR’s supposed attempts at becoming independent. Reportedly, the meeting focused on appointing an additional ADOR director from HYBE so that the sub-label’s management could be held accountable.

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HYBE eventually confirmed the claims made in these reports, saying, “It is true that an audit was initiated.” In addition to reinstating the power hierarchy, HYBE reportedly demanded Hee Jin’s resignation as the ADOR CEO. All this commotion ensued after a tip-off implicated Min Hee Jin’s stance and ADOR’s behind-the-scenes affairs fraught with breach of ethics.

Min Hee Jin refutes claims of suggested takeover

In several exclusive interviews with South Korean media representatives, Min Hee Jin addressed the issue by dismissing HYBE’s claims that she was planning to buy out ADOR’s management rights. She asserted that she never approached “any investor to take the management rights of the company” or attempted to “seize management rights of ADOR as claimed by HYBE.”

Underscoring her minimal stake in the company, she called to attention the impossibility of the takeover since she merely owned 18% shares of ADOR as opposed to the colossal majority stake held by HYBE. Driving the attention back to NewJeans’ upcoming comeback schedules, she claimed she wouldn’t go out of her way to dilute the concentration on her artists by delving into such public opinion battles. Despite her message, she seemingly took a dig at HYBE’s disinterest in prioritising its artists.

Min Hee Jin levels plagiarism accusations

While submerging the claims of going independent, the ADOR CEO foregrounded prevalent “subsidiary plagiarism controversies,” which fuelled her feud with HYBE. She directly targeted the company’s launch of its latest girl group, ILLIT and accused the management of fashioning its concept and style after her own artists – NewJeans.

Hitting the nail on the head, she bashed HYBE for infringing upon NewJeans’ achievements when it should’ve been the one to protect them.

More recent updates reported that ADOR started sending complaint emails to HYBE from April 3 onwards to address this issue, over a week after ILLIT’s debut (March 25).

ADOR vice president Shin Dong Hoon demanded HYBE’s CEO Park Ji Won and Belift Lab CEO Kim Tae Ho to address the conflict of interest centred around imitating NewJeans’ concepts across subsidiaries under the same banner.

Also read | ILLIT’s controversial foundation, Min Hee Jin-HYBE feud and other ill-fated K-pop girl group updates of April 22

Ultimately, Min Hee Jin proactively unleashed her wrath by emailing the HYBE CEO, HYBE chairman Bang Si Hyuk and HYBE America president Scooter Braun. She criticised the company for falling back on its own words and its initial stance against such industrial malpractices. Additionally, she called out HYBE for causing internal rifts between subsidiaries (ADOR and Belift Lab).

She also dragged other fifth-generation groups, including TWS and RIIZE, for allegedly plagiarising NewJeans’ style.

HYBE discovers ‘contract modification agreement’ documents incriminating CEO Min

On April 23, a day after HYBE began its audit of ADOR, the K-pop giant disclosed that ADOR’s management team had, in fact, officially pondered over selling its shares to foreign funds. Reportedly, at least three such documents were discovered, including an official work entry logged by CEO Min’s associate, which addressed weighing out various options like attracting external investors and more.

In a report revealed by Yonhap, the media outlet shared their conversation with an insider, exposing Min Hee Jin’s recent claims about Bang Si Hyuk’s success formula being ripped off her own ideas.

The document discovered during the April 22 audit supposedly divulged that “CEO Min made a statement in an external conversation regarding Chairman Bang Si-hyuk, saying ‘In fact, he’s copied from me and come this far.’” (Koreaboo)

The new report also underlines that it was a widely known habit of Min Hee Jin to make private remarks about the HYBE chairman “copying” her, alluding to BTS’ creation. The audit process also revealed that ADOR had leaked sensitive information about artists’ personal lives (health information, photos and other content from before their debuts) along the way. 

Cases of inappropriate hires also came to light. Min Hee Jin reportedly facilitated the alleged theft of confidential information via a HYBE employee. The purported long list of her misconducts also included reports of “in-house abuse.”

However, Min Hee Jin maintained her stance about HYBE, particularly vilifying her as someone trying to usurp management rights.