Former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin has fired back at HYBE after the company pinned NewJeans’ controversial contract terms on her.

On November 5, The New York Times published an exposé on the contracts NewJeans signed with ADOR in 2022 (when the members were aged just 14 to 17), claiming they lacked key protections for minors and more. On November 6, HYBE vehemently rebutted the report. The company insisted the contracts were signed off by Min Hee Jin and a deputy CEO she appointed, who rejected proposals to reduce the members’ share of costs according to HYBE.

Now, Min Hee Jin (currently CEO of ooak records) has responded through her own representatives in a statement reported by Korean media — and they didn’t hold back speaking against HYBE.

HYBE claims there is nothing wrong with the contents of NewJeans’ exclusive contracts, while simultaneously saying that former CEO Min Hee Jin was the person responsible for all these contracts. Then we ask whether HYBE released its lengthy explanatory statement because it wanted to praise Min Hee Jin.

— Min Hee Jin’s representatives

At the heart of Min’s own rebuttal is the claim that ADOR never had the power to write the contracts in the first place. According to her side, HYBE’s “shared function” policy meant ADOR had no legal team of its own, which meant that HYBE’s legal team drafted the contracts and every revision while ADOR simply relayed questions from NewJeans’ parents.

Min Hee Jin’s representatives also claimed the contracts couldn’t be finalized with the ADOR CEO’s approval alone. They allegedly needed sign-off from HYBE’s legal team, CFO, and CEO, plus a board made up of two HYBE representatives and the ADOR CEO. According to Min’s side, this is a process that is laid out in HYBE’s own 2022 Sustainability Report.

They then revealed what the deputy CEO at the center of HYBE’s statement allegedly told one parent during negotiations.

The contract is used in common across HYBE affiliates, so it is difficult to make all the revisions you requested. That is because HYBE is involved in the final decision-making process. Still, Min Hee Jin is the CEO, so please trust ADOR and the staff she leads and leave this in their hands.

— ADOR’s former deputy CEO, via Min Hee Jin’s representatives

While HYBE claimed that the contracts were only signed after three months of talks and revisions with NewJeans’ own lawyers, Min Hee Jin’s side says those talks only amounted to “limited revisions to clarify wording.” They added that the clauses allowing the use of the members’ likenesses and voices after their contracts end were also drafted by HYBE’s legal team.

Min Hee Jin’s side also brought up a January 2024 meeting with HYBE CEO Park Ji Won, in which she asked for the authority to sign major contracts herself. HYBE told the media in May 2024 that it had “rejected” that request.

If ADOR had sufficient authority to independently decide on and enter into exclusive contracts, as HYBE claims, why would its CEO have separately requested that authority from the parent company?

— Min Hee Jin’s representatives

Rather than charging the members for costs from their earlier trainee days at Source Music, her side added, ADOR chose to waive them — even though other HYBE labels reportedly charged trainee costs after debut.

What needs explaining now is not who signed the contracts, but who actually had the ability to draft and change their key provisions. That is the most important factual issue missing from HYBE’s explanation.

— Min Hee Jin’s representatives