2024-05-10 ADOR Statement

Source: Min Hee Jin Releases Statement About Audit Of ADOR Employee + HYBE Responds | Soompi 

Ahead of ADOR’s board meeting today, we want to address the unfortunate incident where an ADOR employee suffered due to an illegal audit based on irrational issues raised by the HYBE audit team until the early hours of today.

The HYBE audit team began an audit of ADOR’s style directing team leader after work hours at around 7 p.m. on May 9. The audit continued for over five hours, past midnight into May 10, and they followed the relevant employee who was working at the office to her home, demanding not only her laptop but also her personal cell phone not owned by the company and carrying out an audit beyond the scope of work. Moreover, the audit team committed irrational behavior including severe threats such as, “You have to go to the police station if you don’t cooperate,” abusing their authority to audit and psychologically pressuring our employee. Carrying out the coercive audit despite being informed of [the employee having] scheduled activities early in the morning is clearly interference with business.

According to the employee, the HYBE audit team raised issues regarding the contractual relationship between ADOR and the style directing team leader, applying psychological pressure with statements like, “As the circumstances of embezzlement and breach of trust are clear, we plan to file a complaint.” However, such contractual relationships are common practice in the industry, and this information had already been shared with HYBE’s HR and ER departments in February. This information could have been easily understood without the unpleasant audit of the employee.

Typically in the advertising industry, external freelancers for hair, makeup, and styling are employed during shoots, with separate contracts signed between advertisers and freelancers.

For NewJeans’s advertising shoots, ADOR utilized internal staff for styling instead of external personnel. This approach ensured consistent quality of styling, flexibility in sudden schedule changes, and helped manage artists’ privacy. The internal staff were compensated for styling costs directly by the advertisers, and ADOR considered these payments when calculating the internal staff’s incentives.

In the process of calculating performance bonuses for 2023, it was determined that it would be difficult to manage all styling work internally due to NewJeans having more advertising shoots than expected and the increase of additional duties other than advertisements. Accordingly, it was agreed that from 2024 onwards, the work procedure will be revised and styling for advertising shoots will be outsourced. And this decision was already shared with HYBE’s HR and ER departments previously in February. What HYBE is currently taking issue with is actually internal employees receiving the amount that advertisers pay to freelancers instead of receiving incentives from ADOR, and as there was no financial harm to ADOR, embezzlement cannot be established contrary to what is being claimed by HYBE. This matter can be easily verified through records of HR services provided by HYBE as shared services.

Despite the fact that an agreement had been reached between the parties through a rational decision-making process on this matter, HYBE not only abruptly initiated an unreasonable audit of the style directing team leader yesterday but also committed acts that are beyond normal corporate conduct including following a female employee to her home late at night past 10 p.m. and forcing her to sign a form to consent usage of her laptop. The fact that HYBE claims, “It is clear evidence of embezzlement and breach of trust,” despite there being no issues with the procedure or content proves that HYBE management lacks understanding of the industry. The method of this audit also constitutes illegal actions such as interference with business, coercion, and invasion of privacy.

ADOR takes this matter seriously as it shows HYBE’s intent to find faults with ADOR and CEO Min Hee Jin in whatever way possible as they did with the previous coercive audit of the vice president. After announcing the audit to the media on April 22, HYBE has been conducting a smear campaign in various ways using media outlets. Due to concerns that this coercive audit could also be used for media play, we decided to transparently reveal the facts about this ahead of time.

The employee involved is currently experiencing mental distress due to uneasiness. We plan to withdraw the consent to use personal information that was obtained under a coercive situation that lasted more than five hours, and we are also considering filing a legal complaint for interference of business and coercion.

HYBE management shows a lack of industry understanding by framing a transaction conducted reasonably as embezzlement without considering the specifics of the job. It is clear who is causing inefficiency and interference with business under the guise of an audit.