Who's lying? Hybe vs. Min conflict continues to intensify

The conflict between Hybe and former Ador CEO Min Hee-jin continues to intensify, with both parties clashing over another round of allegations.

A day after Ador rejected NewJeans' request to reinstate Min as CEO on Wednesday, a local media outlet released an exclusive interview with Min. In the interview, Min revealed that Hybe had offered her money in May on the condition that she leave the company.

“After winning the injunction against the extraordinary shareholders' meeting in May, where they (Ador) attempted to dismiss me, Hybe, through my lawyer, proposed a settlement offering money for me to step down. However, I refused because money was not my objective," Min said in the interview published Thursday.

Hybe swiftly refuted the allegations, saying, “Hybe has never proposed a settlement to Min offering money in exchange for her departure. We are baffled by such an absurd and false claim being made in media interviews."

A Hybe official confirmed directly to The Korea Herald on Thursday that the parent company would never offer a settlement amid a public dispute that has captured national attention, reaffirming their press statement.

Meanwhile, Min’s PR agency Macoll Consulting Group could not verify if Hybe had actually offered money through Min’s lawyer, as they do not always verify every detail of interviews with the former Ador CEO beforehand.

“Typically, everything is discussed and coordinated, but in this case, the former CEO handled certain parts personally. We didn’t arrange the interview (with the local media outlet); it was conducted directly by the CEO,” the agency’s official told The Korea Herald on Friday.

Min also criticized Hybe’s internal audit, which was conducted to investigate her alleged attempt to seize control of Ador’s management in April. She described the audit as being driven by “impulsive emotions” and claimed it was “illegally carried out on the basis of false information.”

Hybe countered by stating that the audit was initiated following both internal and external reports. The findings, according to Hybe, revealed that Min, along with the deputy CEO, had been seeking ways to undermine the company over a prolonged period.

“There were numerous instances where statements such as 'No one inside Hybe can touch us,' 'We will eventually break away from Hybe,' and 'We should take advantage of the fact that the mothers (of NewJeans members) haven’t signed contracts with Hybe' were uncovered, along with evidence of meetings with potential investors with malicious intent,” Hybe said in a statement.

Min also accused Hybe of downplaying NewJeans’ achievements in Japan after the parent company told a local reporter on July 18 that the girl group had only sold 50,000 copies of their Japanese debut album, “Supernatural.”

“NewJeans even received a Gold Record certification, which is awarded to artists who sell over 100,000 copies in Japan. How could it be possible that only 50,000 albums were sold the day before?” Min questioned in the interview.

Hybe, however, clarified that it had merely corrected an article that claimed “1.02 million copies were sold in Japan alone,” as this was a significant distortion.

The K-pop powerhouse further explained that it provided the reporter with the actual sales figures based on publicly available Oricon chart data. The Gold certification, they added, is based on shipment figures, not actual sales.

In the K-pop industry, album sales refer to actual consumer purchases, while shipment sales count the number of albums distributed to retailers but not yet sold.