HYBE addresses claims of “threats” to ADOR staff late at night in their homes

Article: Min Hee-jin, “HYBE’s illegal audit” vs. HYBE, “Min Hee-jin condoned illegal activities”

Source: Seoul Shinmun

HYBE has retorted ADOR‘s claims of an “illegal audit” of company staff late at night.

On the 10th, HYBE issued a rebuttal to Sejong Law Firm statements and explained, “the audit in question was conducted legally with the consent of the auditee and in a non-coercive atmosphere. The team leader in question admitted that with CEO Min’s approval, she had received hundreds of millions of won in money and valuables from an outsourced company for several years and expressed her intention to submit her laptop to the company, which she had left at home. Accordingly, with her consent, only female employees were present. They accompanied the team leader into her home and returned the laptop.”

HYBE also took issue with the fact that A received funds paid by an advertiser directly instead of receiving incentives from ADOR. According to HYBE, they discovered instances of embezzlement by employee A who directly received company CF funds that should go to company profits. 

ADOR claimed that until last year, it had handled CF styling work internally rather than outsourcing it and there is no problem with an internal staff member who performed the work receiving the amount paid by the advertiser. ADOR emphasized, “This type of contractual relationship is a normal practice in the industry. This information was already shared with HYBE’s HR and ER departments in February.”

On the other hand, HYBE countered that this practice is “illegal, and not customary.” HYBE stated, “there is no practice in which a company’s full-time employees directly take hundreds of millions of won in profits from advertisers. Amounts that should be recognized as company sales were handed over privately. The fact that the CEO knew this and tolerated it for years is not a practice but a clear illegality.”

HYBE claims ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin knew the issue could become a problem. According to leaked conversations between CEO Min and associates released by HYBE, Min Hee-jin states, “This is a huge issue internally so we need to deal with it first before we’re caught by HYBE. This could become an issue in the audit.”

HYBE stated, “CEO Min has not taken any follow-up measures, such as recovery or punishment for the illegally received amounts. It’s not clear where the hundreds of millions of won worth of illegal profits received by A flowed into. We will conduct investigations and take all civil and criminal measures regarding the matter.”

Meanwhile, ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin and the board of directors will hold a board meeting in downtown Seoul this morning. HYBE claims that ADOR board of directors that consist of CEO Min, Vice President Shin, and Senior Creative Director Kim are the “Min Hee-jin Camp” and attempted to “usurp management rights” by attracting external investors and selling HYBE’s ADOR shares.

1. [+760, -131] Is it legal for a company to follow an employee into their home??? That’s scary
2. [+443, -35] Daebak.. even the prosecution can’t do anything without a warrant.. what kind of yangachi [thug] agency is HYBE?? No evidence but they went as far as doing that?
3. [+418, -40] Coordis are core workers for any entertainment agency so did they have do this right before the group’s comeback when they’re are the busiest?? I’m not a financial accountant or anything but this seems like a distraction from work?? Are they aiming for plagiarism again, looking to copy stylist materials from the coordi’s laptop??
4. [+234, -40] HYBE is crossing the lines now..
5. [+210, -2] Eh, all this fuss by HYBE and they don’t have any evidence either??? 
6. [+84, -4] No.. it’s just common sense that you don’t visit an employee’s home late into the night until past midnight?? HYBE part-timers need to pay attention and exit the company.. this is how far your agency is willing to go to distract from the core issue  ㅋㅋㅋ
7. [+75, -2] HYBE-ssi, please mind the line. Isn’t it crazy to claim protecting the artist as a top priority when you’re interfering with the work of the most important staff a few days before a comeback and putting psychological pressure on them? This is a company blinded by their own interests really.
8. [+69, -1] Private company auditors going inside your home??! Even a prosecutor’s office needs a warrant?? They’re crossing the line.
9. [+62, -2] So they’re threatening coordis late at night claiming breach of trust?? No.. isn’t this them trying to steal again?? HYBE-ssi, no matter how hard you try to copy and paste, your idols will always be a Temu version of New Jeans.
10. [+55, -4] Honestly, it’s foolish to unilaterally take HYBE’s side right now without questioning their motives on why they leaked this to media?? HYBE pretended to have all the evidence but the fact that they’re digging into a coordi who isn’t even an executive makes this even more suspicious.
11. [+49, -2] So they were just visiting a style director past midnight claiming to have proofsㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
12. [+26, -1] So are we a communist republic now?? They’re crossing the line. It’s scary that they even took the coordi’s personal phone?