Min Hee Jin's lawyers released a statement on HYBE's alleged manipulation after the two sides' injunction ruling.
As previously reported, the Seoul Central District Court accepted ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin's request for an injunction against HYBE, which means the parent label will not be able to exercise their majority shareholder rights to remove her from her position at ADOR. HYBE then stated they'll be accepting the court's ruling, but plan to take legal action.
Min Hee Jin's lawyers stated HYBE's allegations against the ADOR CEO were unfounded and that HYBE would be violating the court's injunction order if they dismissed Min Hee Jin.
Read her lawyers' full statement below.
"Hello. This is Sejong Law Firm, representing ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin.
On April 22, 2024, HYBE requested an interim shareholders' meeting to discuss the dismissal proposal of CEO Min Hee Jin and internal director. The interim shareholders' meeting is scheduled for tomorrow (May 31, 2024, at 9 a.m.). However, this action violates the shareholder agreement between Min Hee Jin and HYBE. Therefore, on May 7, 2024, CEO Min Hee Jin filed for an injunction to prohibit the exercise of voting rights regarding the 'Dismissal Proposal of CEO Min Hee Jin and Internal Director' against HYBE (Seoul Central District Court Case No. 2024KaHap20635).
On May 30, 2024, the Seoul Central District Court's 50th Civil Division made a decision referring to the injunction application. Consequently, at the interim shareholders' meeting of ADOR scheduled for May 31, 2024, HYBE is unable to exercise voting rights in favor of the 'Dismissal of Internal Director Min Hee Jin'. If HYBE violates the injunction decision and exercises its voting rights, it must compensate CEO Min Hee Jin with an indirect penalty of 20 billion won ($14,536,476 USD).
Since the submission of the injunction application on May 7, 2024, until just before the decision, HYBE's legal representative submitted extensive written materials a total of 11 times, while Min Hee Jin's side countered with written materials nine times, providing comprehensive rebuttals. Today, the court referred to CEO Min's injunction application after carefully examining the arguments from both sides. The court concluded that HYBE's indiscriminate witch-hunt-like allegations, widely circulated in the media, were all unfounded.
The key issues in this case were: 1) Whether HYBE could be compelled to abide by the voting rights restraint agreement stipulated in the shareholder agreement between CEO Min Hee Jin and HYBE, which states, "HYBE must exercise voting rights to maintain Min Hee Jin as CEO and internal director of ADOR for five years," and 2) Whether there were grounds for CEO Min Hee Jin's dismissal or resignation.
Since the voting rights restraint agreement is an agreement between the parties, it is natural to abide by it. However, HYBE even denied this explicit agreement between the parties. Nevertheless, the court did not accept HYBE's argument because the language of the shareholder agreement was clear.
Regarding whether there were grounds for CEO Min Hee Jin's dismissal or resignation, despite all the KakaoTalk conversations leaked by HYBE through the media being presented in court, the court rejected HYBE's claims. HYBE failed to prove grounds for CEO Min Hee Jin's dismissal or resignation, which is the most crucial reason for the acceptance of this injunction application.
Since the commencement of HYBE's illegal audit on April 22, 2024, the data obtained through such illegal audits has been leaked without filtration. However, apart from some KakaoTalk conversations, which could potentially frame CEO Min Hee Jin as a target of witch-hunt under malicious intent, there has been no evidence supporting HYBE's claims.
During this trial, maliciously edited private conversations among third parties were indiscriminately circulated in the media. Even now, some YouTubers and bloggers are interpreting these edited KakaoTalk conversations at their will, invading the privacy and defaming CEO Min Hee Jin and members of ADOR. We plan to take legal action against this, so we urge you to immediately remove any posted videos, etc.
Furthermore, HYBE should respect the court's injunction decision. If HYBE takes any actions to exclude CEO Min Hee Jin from the positions of CEO and internal director against the injunction decision, it would directly violate the shareholder agreement. Additionally, unless there are grounds for CEO Min Hee Jin's dismissal, there are no grounds for the dismissal of the two internal directors from CEO Min Hee Jin's side. Therefore, if HYBE dismisses these directors, it clearly indicates disrespect for the court's decision and unjustifiable dismissal. Thank you."
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More than MHJ, what bothers me the most is the involvement of NJ and their Families in this mess. They directly accused Illit of copying them, threw dirt on BSK, petionined in support for MHJ And now with this Injunction ( NJ Members still in MHJ's control ) Just imagine the atmosphere in the Hybe building right now. I have a strong feeling, Hybe will go all out no matter what and there will be some serious consequences for those who played FOX.
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