NewJeans’ parents and HYBE subsidiary Belift Lab have trades opposing statements over an alleged bullying incident involving NewJeans member Hanni and the manager of girl group ILLIT.
Last month, NewJeans held a surprise livestream voicing their support for former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin amid the music executive’s ongoing feud with parent company HYBE. During the stream, Hanni spoke of an alleged incident where the manager of another group told them to “ignore her” when they encountered one another at the company’s headquarters.
During the stream, Hanni did not name the group involved but claimed she had reported the incident to new ADOR CEO Kim Ju-young, who allegedly “tried to gloss over the situation” due to lack of evidence.
In a new interview with Ilgan Sports, the mothers of two NewJeans members voiced their concerns over Kim’s handling of the matter, expressing doubt on the integrity of the investigation. According to them, the incident happened in late-May and was brought to Kim’s attention in June.
They alleged that after calls for investigation, they were provided eight seconds of security camera footage of Hanni and the group greeting one another, but that the remaining footage had been deleted. “When we asked why the remaining footage was deleted, [the security team] said they did not know, as the person who did so had quit the company,” they said.
The pair also shared that the board of directors at ADOR had requested materials from the investigation directly from Belift Lab, and questioned the neutrality of the process: “Shouldn’t HYBE be neutral and investigate it? Also, wouldn’t it be right for the department or person in charge of workplace bullying at HYBE to do it?”
Additionally, the parents also claimed that Kim told Hanni at a meeting on September 23 that she “should have told us [about the incident] quickly”, as it was now too late since the security footage had been deleted. However, they maintained that they and Hanni had spoken up about the incident less than a month after it occurred.
Belift Lab has since responded to the interview in a statement posted on social media. “No ILLIT staff has said anything like ‘ignore her’ to a NewJeans member. The members of ILLIT have never passed by without greeting the members of NewJeans,” it claimed.
The label added that this was alleged confirmed through security camera footage and an investigation of its staff members after the parents of the NewJeans members raised the issue on June 13.
“The two groups’ only encounter was on May 27, when they were in the same space inside the HYBE building for about five minutes. The footage showed the members of ILLIT getting off the elevator and bowing 90 degrees to NewJeans member Hanni, who was standing in front of them,” it said.
Belift Lab added that it had relayed the footage to Min’s camp on August 14, who allegedly claimed there was additional footage of the scene that was “intentionally deleted” by HYBE. “They claim that ‘the video [where the word ‘ignore’ was used] has been deleted’, but this is also an argument that cannot be established because the voice is not recorded on CCTV,” it said.
금일자 일간스포츠 기사에 대해 알려드립니다. pic.twitter.com/w5p3Go3SCy
— BELIFT LAB (@BELIFTLAB) October 7, 2024
“We have refrained from commenting on this issue in order to protect our workers, who are inevitably in a weaker position than famous artists,” the label continued, added that its staff are “complaining of extreme injustice and mental distress”.
The label shared that they sent two official responses and positions on the matter in August and September, and requested to prevent a recurrence of the issue before it was made public. “We demanded an apology from the member and ADOR, but we have not received a response,” it said.
Belift Lab then stated that it would take “all measures necessary” if this issue continues to damage the reputation of its label, staff, artists and interfere with their business. At the time of publishing, ADOR, NewJeans and their parents have yet to respond to the label’s statement.