Min Hee Jin and ADOR Clash in Court Over NewJeans Video

Min Hee Jin testifies against her former company.
ADOR alleges unfair financial benefits for filmmakers.
Legal battles expand with new claims and defenses.

The ongoing legal saga surrounding former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin continues to add new, complex chapters. In a significant development, Min Hee Jin appeared at the Seoul Central District Court on November 11th as a witness. 

This wasn't for her highly publicized battle with HYBE, but for a separate, multi-million dollar damages lawsuit. The case pits ADOR, the label she was once at the helm of, against director Shin Woo Seok and his production company, Dolphiners Films, the creative force behind some of NewJeans' most iconic music videos, including "Ditto" and "ETA." 

The core of the dispute? The August 2023 upload of a director's cut of the "ETA" music video to Dolphiners Films' own YouTube channel. Taking the stand, Min Hee Jin delivered testimony that sharply criticized ADOR's current legal stance. She firmly stated that she had given prior verbal approval for the director's cut to be released. 

When questioned about whether approval from Apple's official advertising agency, Apple TBWA, was needed, Min asserted her authority, stating, “Copyright itself belongs to ADOR, and Apple is a partner. I have the authority to approve creative rights.” 

She went even further, lambasting ADOR's claim for financial penalties even after the video was taken down. Min Hee Jin described the claim as “unreasonable,” and delivered a pointed critique.

“To unilaterally draft a contract and then claim damages for a supposed breach is an abuse of the law. It’s odd that all staff make verbal agreements, yet HYBE applies this standard only to Director Shin," Min Hee Jin claimed. 

Perhaps most definitively, she shut down any notion of favoritism towards Dolphiners Films, labeling such accusations as “baseless and slanderous.”

ADOR Fires Back, Alleging Systematic Preferential Treatment

In response to Min Hee Jin's testimony, ADOR did not remain silent. The company presented a counter-narrative, one that paints a picture of systematic preferential treatment and financial impropriety during Min Hee Jin's tenure. 

ADOR's legal team argued that allowing NewJeans content to appear on an external contractor's channel, rather than the official HYBE Labels channel which boasts over 78 million subscribers, caused direct harm to the company and was a breach of her duty as CEO.

The most striking allegations, however, were financial. ADOR revealed that in 2023, Min Hee Jin approved payments totaling a staggering 3.3 billion KRW (approximately $2.36 million USD) to Dolphiners Films for just four NewJeans music videos. This sum represented about 25% of ADOR's entire annual revenue for that year. 

To provide context, ADOR claimed that other production companies were typically paid between 200–300 million KRW per video, making the payments to Dolphiners Films over 1 billion KRW per video highly anomalous and suggestive of repeated, high-value favoritism.

Furthermore, ADOR accused Min Hee Jin of interfering in contracts outside of her purview. They presented KakaoTalk messages as evidence, showing Min forwarding a stock purchase agreement between Dolphiners Films and Kakao Entertainment to an ADOR deputy CEO for review. ADOR suggested that this contract, which included a side agreement requiring Dolphiners Films to hit an 18 billion KRW operating profit target by 2026, was a motive for Min to allegedly inflate budgets and assign extra projects to help the production company meet its goal. 

When confronted about this, Min Hee Jin acknowledged receiving the contract but denied reviewing.

“I did not review its contents. It was likely handled by Deputy CEO L," replied Min Hee Jin.

A Web of Legal Battles and a Final Word on NewJeans Debut

This lawsuit is just one front in a sprawling legal war involving Min Hee Jin, ADOR, and HYBE. In a related but separate case, Min Hee Jin's legal team recently responded to defamation claims filed by Source Music, another HYBE label. 

Source Music is seeking 500 million KRW in damages, arguing that Min's past statements about being the one who "picked NewJeans" and that a promise to debut them as HYBE's first girl group was broken were false.

Min Hee Jin's team offered a robust defense, emphasizing context. They argued that from July 2019, HYBE itself had publicly positioned Min as the director of its first girl group, and the NewJeans members were cast into her "N-team" project with that understanding. 

“This is documented in the plaintiff’s own reports,” they stated. 

Source Music placed the blame for the debut delay squarely on HYBE, asserting, “The problem began when Chairman Bang failed to uphold his promise” to provide timely musical concepts. 

On the critical question of casting, Min Hee Jin's team clarified that while Source Music may have signed the contracts, "casting" in this context referred to Min's pivotal role in selecting the final members from a pool of applicants and crafting the group's unique brand identity. This intricate web of lawsuits and counterclaims shows no sign of abating, with the entertainment industry watching closely as each new hearing unveils more layers of this corporate and creative power struggle.

Source: Allkpop, Sports Khan, TV Daily