"Coercive Acquisition of Adore-Owned Laptop and PC Under the Pretext of Audit"
"Editing and Distorting Conversations to Create Negative Public Opinion Against Adore"
Min Hee-jin, CEO of ADOR, has filed a lawsuit against Park Ji-won, CEO of HYBE, and other key HYBE officials.
On the 24th, Min’s side announced that they filed a complaint with the Yongsan Police Station against Park and others on charges of obstruction of business, violation of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection (information and communications network infringement, etc.), and defamation under the same act.
The accused include Park Ji-won, Im Soo-hyun, Chairman of the Audit Committee, Jung Jin-soo, Chief Legal Officer, Lee Kyung-joon, Chief Financial Officer, and Park Tae-hee, Chief Communications Officer.
Min’s side claimed that these individuals “repeatedly engaged in the unauthorized leaking and falsified editing of private messenger conversations and personal information obtained illegally,” and “under the pretext of auditing a subsidiary of the parent company, they forcibly seized ADOR-owned work laptops and PCs to illegally obtain personal KakaoTalk message conversations unrelated to work.”
They added, “They edited and distorted the obtained personal conversations to create press releases containing false information, which were distributed to the media to generate negative public opinion against CEO Min.”
According to Min’s side, these key HYBE officials seized ADOR-owned work laptops and PCs used by Min and others twice in April after Min made internal whistleblowing reports. Through this, they secured personal KakaoTalk message conversations of ADOR employees. They also conducted forensic analysis on laptops that Min had reset and returned around 2022 when she joined ADOR, illegally obtaining personal conversations unrelated to work.
Min’s side stated, “The complainants have repeatedly requested both officially and unofficially that these illegal acts, which harm artists and ADOR members and cause public confusion, be stopped, but the accused’s illegal activities have continued until recently. Therefore, we can no longer overlook the damage caused to artists and ADOR members by these illegal acts and are taking action.”
Meanwhile, Min is currently under police investigation for charges of breach of trust. Source Music, another HYBE subsidiary and the agency of the group LE SSERAFIM, has also filed a lawsuit against Min seeking damages in the 500 million KRW range.
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