Belift Lab denies allegations that ILLIT's manager instructed the members to "ignore Hanni"

AKP STAFF

Belift Lab strongly refuted the claims of workplace mistreatment of NewJeans' Hanni.

On October 7, Belift Lab stated, "We would like to provide Belift Lab’s official statement regarding the article published by Ilgan Sports on October 7. We strongly demand an immediate halt to the baseless attempts to undermine our rookie artist, following the absurd plagiarism claims and now the unfounded greeting controversy."

The label continued, "The protocol team member (manager) of ILLIT never made the remark 'ignore her' about any NewJeans member, and the ILLIT members have never passed by the NewJeans members without greeting them."

The company added, "These facts were confirmed through a review of CCTV footage and an investigation of the protocol team members and artists, conducted at the request of Belift Lab on June 13, following the concerns raised by NewJeans' parents. The only encounter between the two groups occurred on May 27, when they stayed in the same space inside the HYBE building for about five minutes. The CCTV footage shows ILLIT members, who had just exited the elevator, greeting NewJeans' Hanni with a 90-degree bow. When this footage was reviewed alongside former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin’s team, they claimed the failure to greet must have happened after this scene and suggested there must be other footage. However, the 30-day retention period for the footage had already passed, making further retrieval impossible. Min Hee Jin’s team now claims HYBE intentionally deleted the footage."

Belift Lab also stated, "After the initial complaint, we sent official responses and statements to ADOR in August and September. Following NewJeans' public mention of the issue during a live broadcast, we requested an apology from both the member and ADOR, but we have yet to receive a response. If this issue continues to damage the reputation of our company, artists, or staff, and interfere with our operations, we will take all necessary measures."

Previously, Hanni revealed during a live-streaming session that she overheard another group's manager telling their artists to "ignore" her when she crossed paths with the group while at HYBE's office building. Hanni stated that she raised this issue with ADOR CEO Kim Joo Young but only to have it turned to deaf ears.

Then on October 7, mothers of NewJeans' members spoke with Illgan Sports to reveal that HYBE deleted the problematic "Ignore Hanni" CCTV video and prolonged the fact-checking process.

Below is the full statement from Belift Lab:

"Hello, this is Belift Lab.

We would like to address Belift Lab's stance regarding the article published by Ilgan Sports on October 7.

We strongly demand an immediate halt to the baseless attempts to undermine our rookie artist, following the absurd plagiarism claims and now the groundless controversy regarding greetings.

The ILLIT protocol team member (manager) never made the statement "ignore her" in reference to any NewJeans member. Likewise, ILLIT members have never passed by NewJeans members without greeting them.

This was confirmed through the review of CCTV footage and the investigation of protocol team members and artists, which was conducted at Belift Lab's request on June 13, following the concerns raised by the NewJeans members' parents.

The only encounter between the two groups occurred on May 27 inside the HYBE building, where they stayed in the same space for about five minutes. The CCTV footage clearly shows the ILLIT members exiting the elevator and greeting NewJeans member Hanni with a 90-degree bow as they enter a room.

When this footage was reviewed again on August 14 with former CEO Min Hee Jin's team, they introduced a new claim, suggesting that the failure to greet occurred after the recorded scene and that there might be other footage. However, according to the security company, it was impossible to retrieve additional footage since the 30-day storage period had already passed. Min's team now claims that HYBE intentionally deleted the footage.

Our protocol team members always use honorific language when addressing artists, making it objectively unlikely that the phrase "ignore her" was ever spoken.

Additionally, the claim that the footage of the statement "Ignore her" was deleted cannot be substantiated since CCTV does not record audio.

From the very beginning, we have thoroughly investigated this issue with sincerity, ensuring that all artists, including those from other labels, maintain respectful behavior toward one another. Despite providing all necessary explanations, new unfounded claims have been raised, and now, the issue is even being discussed in the National Assembly's audit. This makes us question whether there are ulterior motives behind these continuous allegations.

We have refrained from addressing this issue publicly out of a desire to protect our protocol team members, who are in a relatively weaker position compared to well-known artists. However, as false claims continue to be treated as fact, the affected team members are now experiencing extreme frustration and mental distress. The real victim of harassment in this situation is the powerless protocol team member, as the issue of greetings, which should have remained in the realm of professional courtesy, has been repeatedly distorted and taken to a public platform.

Since this issue was first raised, we sent two official responses and statements to ADOR in August and September. After NewJeans publicly mentioned the issue during a live broadcast, we requested an apology from both the member and ADOR, but we have yet to receive a response.

If this issue continues to damage the reputation of our company, artists, or employees and interfere with our operations, we will take all necessary measures to defend ourselves.

[June 13 – Issue Raised by NewJeans]

After receiving the written complaint, Belift Lab conducted in-person investigations with both artists and protocol team members and confirmed that the alleged remarks were unfounded.

To further clarify the facts, we proactively requested HYBE to review the CCTV footage. Since the specific date of the incident was not clearly indicated in the complaint, we reviewed all possible footage from May 14 to June 13, focusing on artist movements within the HYBE building.

During this period, we confirmed that the only encounter between the ILLIT and NewJeans members occurred on May 27, when ILLIT members greeted NewJeans members with a 90-degree bow in the elevator hall. We secured this footage.

[June 19 – Sharing Our Stance with NewJeans]

Based on our investigation, we communicated during a face-to-face meeting with ADOR's new board members and the NewJeans members' parents that Belift Lab staff had not engaged in the actions or made the remarks that were being claimed.

[August 14 – CCTV Review in the Presence of Both Parties]

Despite our previous explanations, NewJeans' side continued to raise concerns. Therefore, with the consent of the artists from both ADOR and Belift Lab, we reviewed the May 27 footage again together.

After reviewing the footage, ADOR raised a new issue, claiming that the problematic situation occurred after the recorded scene. Both parties contacted the security company, but since the CCTV retention period had expired, it was no longer possible to retrieve additional footage.

(Note: While the Ilgan Sports article did not mention Belift Lab or ILLIT by name, the community has made references to our artists, so we are providing a named explanation for clarity.)

Thank you."