Min Hee-jin vs Source Music and Believe Lab's 2.5 billion lawsuit 'All Stop' [★FOCUS]

*This content was translated by AI.

The legal battle between Min Hee-jin, former CEO of ADOR, Source Music, and Billifrap has all stopped.

The 12th Civil Affairs Department of the Seoul Western District Court changed the date of pleading for damages worth a total of 2.5 billion won filed by Source Music and Billifrap against former CEO Min Hee-jin, respectively, and set an estimated date.

The estimated date means that the court has not yet confirmed the next date and will designate it later, and the trial has been suspended. There are many reasons, but they usually watch the results of lawsuits related to both sides and resume their arguments.

Currently, former CEO Min Hee-jin is set to appeal a put option lawsuit worth 25.6 billion won with HYBE, which includes Source Music and Billifrap, and has just begun pleading for damages worth 43 billion won with Audor, who stepped down after taking over as CEO of NewJeans. Conflict issues between former CEO Min Hee-jin, Source Music, and Billifrap, even if not directly related to these two lawsuits, have also been mentioned several times in put option lawsuits and ADOR lawsuits.

First, Source Music filed a lawsuit against former CEO Min Hee-jin in July 2024 for damages worth 500 million won. The key issue came from former CEO Min Hee-jin's claim at a press conference in April 2024, "I cast NewJeans members myself, and HYBE unilaterally broke its promise to debut in a girl group for the first time." Source Music filed a lawsuit alleging that the remarks were actually timely, which damaged the reputation of Source Music and its artists.

Source Music said, "The problem is not an individual expression, but the overall context of the press conference remarks," adding, "It is illegal to make even irrelevant third-party artists perceived negatively due to private conflicts between shareholders."

In response, former representative Min Hee-jin refuted the press conference, saying, "It was an inevitable response to the HYBE's audit and unilateral media response." It is unfair to judge only some remarks as defamation, and the expression "Yangachi" is also an expression that points out problems in the establishment process, not an insult aimed at a specific person.

The lawsuit began in January 2025 and finished four arguments, and was set to be sentenced in January, but the argument suddenly resumed and the estimated date was confirmed ahead of the argument on the 13th.

Prior to Source Music, Billifrap filed a lawsuit against former CEO Min Hee-jin in June 2024 for damages worth 2 billion won. The lawsuit began with former CEO Min Hee-jin's "raising suspicion of plagiarism in ILLIT."

When Min Hee-jin served as CEO, Lee ADOR said, "We publicly express our position on the 'ILLIT copy situation of NewJeans' for the protection of NewJeans and the sound development of Korea's music industry and culture," adding, "Belifrap, one of HYBE's labels, debuted the female five-member idol group ILLIT in March this year. After ILLIT's teaser photo was released, the response that "I thought it was New Jeans" exploded online. ILLIT copies NewJeans in all areas of entertainment, including hair, makeup, costumes, choreography, photos, videos, and event appearances. The ILLIT claimed that it is evaluated as 'Min Hee-jin style', 'Min Hee-jin style', and 'NewJeans class'.

In addition, ADOR said, "HYBE's chairman Bang Si-hyuk produced his ILLIT debut album. The NewJeans copy of the ILLIT was not done by the label Billifrap alone, but the HYBE was involved. The HYBE, which is a leading K-pop company, is producing cliché rather than showing newness by copying successful cultural contents blinded by short-term profits, he said. "Since they are under the HYBE, they can understand that ILLIT are similar to NewJeans." There are even reactions that ADOR and NewJeans may have allowed or understood this similarity. But these responses are clearly misleading. Multi-labels are a system to allow each label to do the music they want independently, not to exonerate other labels from copying the cultural achievements achieved by one label because it is an affiliated label," he said.

In particular, "ADOR has never allowed or understood to copy the performance of the NewJeans to anyone, including the actual HYBE, Bilibrap. The ADOR does not want NewJeans and ILLIT to be related in any way. I don't intend to tolerate promotions such as who is whose younger brother group just because I debuted on a label under HYBE," he stressed.

In response, Billifrap filed the lawsuit in June, saying that the claim that ILLIT plagiarized NewJeans's plan was not true. "ILLIT's branding strategy and concept were finalized and shared internally on July 21, 2023," Billifrap said. "The informant sent the so-called plan after that, on August 28, 2023, it cannot affect ILLIT's concept at this time."

Along with the lawsuit, Billifrap said, "We filed a complaint against CEO Min Hee-jin, who is causing damage by claiming unilateral false information against us and ILLIT," adding, "Min Hee-jin scapegoated an innocent rookie group for his own private interests," adding, "We express regret that plagiarism is adversely affecting popular culture as a means of securing his own private interests." If we fail to correct the act of framing and distorting only the position that is favorable to us, which should be judged in the professional field, this will greatly reduce the creative activities of creators, and Min Hee-jin will never be free," he pointed out.

The lawsuit also began pleading on the same day as the Source Music lawsuit, finished pleading a total of five times, and was confirmed as an estimated date ahead of the sixth pleading on the 27th.

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*This content was translated by AI.