Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Back to the legal mess mines with a major update in the Min Hee Jin/ADOR/HYBE/NewJeans case, as courts ruled in favor of Min Hee Jin regarding her put option to purchase stock, which is currently worth approximately $18 million total.
They awarded her around 25.5 billion won in the matter of HYBE’s lawsuit and her counterclaim over the termination of her stockholder’s agreement.
The court stated, “The key issue in this case is identical to that of the preceding case. However, in this case, the plaintiff’s exercise of the so-called stock sale claim right (put option) remains a separate matter.” It continued, “Exercising the put option has the effect of terminating the shareholders’ agreement. Therefore, termination is only possible if there has been a serious breach significant enough to justify it. Accordingly, we do not accept HYBE’s claims arising from the exercise of the stock sale claim right,” effectively recognizing Min Hee Jin’s exercise of the put option as valid.
Additionally, courts awarded the former ADOR Vice President 1.7 billion won and the former ADOR Creative Director 1.4 billion won.
As for the ruling, the courts didn’t find the breach sufficient enough to justify a termination of the agreement.
Regarding the key issue of whether there had been a serious breach sufficient to justify termination of the shareholders’ agreement, the court determined that it “cannot be regarded as grounds for termination.” HYBE had argued that Min Hee Jin attempted to “take NewJeans away,” causing substantial damage to the company and that it had already notified her of contract termination in July 2024, thereby extinguishing her put option rights as well. However, Min Hee Jin countered that the shareholders’ agreement was still valid at the time she exercised the put option.
The court largely accepted Min Hee Jin’s arguments while rejecting most of HYBE’s claims. While the court acknowledged that Min Hee Jin had explored the possibility of ADOR’s independence, it determined that such actions did not constitute a serious breach of duty.
Right, so basically they’re saying what I’ve seen some lawyers point out, which is that plotting a hypothetical in private essentially isn’t reason enough for a company to escalate into termination.
Also, the plagiarism claim was justified in the sense that they felt she was entitled to her opinion.
Regarding the claim that ILLIT plagiarized NewJeans, the court noted that HYBE had in fact provided NewJeans-related materials to BELIFT LAB and that the assertion of similarity was not a statement of fact but rather an opinion or value judgment.
Basically, they’re not saying ILLIT did plagiarize NewJeans, but that Min Hee Jin had reason enough to reasonably expect they did when she gave her take.
Unsurprisingly, HYBE has said they will appeal the decision.
You know, it’s kind of incredible that things might work out how my cynical-ass thought they might, which is basically all the executives involved get to keep their money and continue on with their careers like nothing happened, while all the idols and employees are left to deal with the aftermath like the pawns they were used as.
As for the other rulings that were done while I’m gone, maybe I’ll get back to them later … or maybe not, as not having to do that was rather nice.
