ADOR’s Lawsuit Against HYBE’s Park Ji-won for Illegal Acquisition and Leakage of Messages

On July 24th, ADOR announced that CEO Min Hee-jin and other individuals have filed a complaint against HYBE CEO Park Ji-won, Audit Committee Chairman Lim Soo-hyun, Chief Legal Officer Jung Jin-soo, Chief Financial Officer Lee Kyung-joon, and Chief Communications Officer Park Tae-hee for various offenses including obstruction of business, electronic record inspection, and defamation under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection. The complaint was filed at the Yongsan Police Station on the same day.

They persisted, stating that the defendants had consistently obtained and released private messenger conversations and personal information in an illegal manner, altering and manipulating them to align with their own agenda.

In addition, the defendants allegedly seized ADOR’s work laptops in April, claiming to conduct an audit on the subsidiary of their parent company. Their intention was to remove Min Hee-jin from her role as CEO of ADOR, after she had reported two incidents of wrongdoing within the company. In doing so, they illegally accessed private KakaoTalk conversations and performed forensic analysis on a laptop that Min Hee-jin had reset and returned in 2022 upon joining ADOR. This allowed them to obtain personal conversations that were unrelated to work.

The statement further alleged that the defendants manipulated and misrepresented the private conversations they had obtained in order to fabricate and distribute press releases containing false information about Min Hee-jin’s management and work performance, ultimately resulting in a negative public perception of her.

Finally, the defendants were reminded that the request to cease these actions has been made on numerous occasions, both formally and informally, in order to prevent harm to artists and members of ADOR, and to avoid confusion among the general public. Despite these efforts, the defendants have persisted in their illegal actions until very recently, and it is no longer acceptable for artists and ADOR members to be subjected to such unlawful activities.

Previously, Dispatch accused ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin of “stealing”members from the group NewJeans, citing KakaoTalk conversations between Min and a shaman as evidence. Dispatch alleged that Min, who was in charge of branding for Source Music’s team N, deliberately postponed their debut in order to prioritize NewJeans’ debut. However, Min’s representatives have strongly refuted these claims and have announced their intention to take legal action.