Min Hee Jin Reveals In Court The Reason She Called Out ILLIT

Former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin explained the circumstances that led her to raise plagiarism allegations against ILLIT. On December 18, Min appeared at the hearing for her stock sale payment lawsuit related to the exercise of her put option against HYBE, held by the Seoul Central District Court Civil Division 31.

She emphasized that her decision to call out ILLIT’s alleged plagiarism was “for the sake of protecting NewJeans.”

“If you think about it logically, my real motive is simple. If I stayed quiet, I could just exercise my put option in one or two years. Who would do something like this otherwise? This didn’t happen because of some petty plagiarism fight — Chairman Bang Si Hyuk was really too much. He made things so difficult from the debut, and it felt like he squeezed everything he could out of us.”

Min continued to explain that although she’s the CEO, the artist is the one who suffers.

“From the perspective of ADOR’s CEO, the ones suffering the damage are NewJeans. A CEO could stay silent and still get the money, but the harm goes directly to NewJeans. Protecting them is what a CEO should do. People take plagiarism and similarity lightly, but for someone, this is about survival.”

Min further claimed that HYBE, as the parent company, neglected ADOR not only regarding plagiarism concerns but also in terms of marketing and other matters.

“If I hadn’t raised objections about the plagiarism, they would have denied everything. That’s why I lodged the complaint.”

In early November last year, Min notified HYBE of her intention to exercise her put option for her shares in ADOR. Under the shareholder agreement, the valuation period for the put option covered the years 2022–2023.

According to ADOR’s audit report released last April, Min owns 573,160 shares (18%) of the company. Based on calculations, the amount she could receive through the put option is estimated at ₩26.0 billion KRW (about $17.6 million USD).

HYBE argues that the shareholder agreement was terminated in July, making the put option invalid. Min counters that she committed no breach of contract and insists that HYBE’s termination notice holds no legal effect.