In an official stance, BELIFT LAB responded to NewJeans Hanni’s allegations that their staff told ILLIT to ignore his greetings. The agency then unveiled a timeline that reveals what really happened.
On October 7, BELIFT LAB released an opposing position after various K-media outlets reported that parent company HYBE attempted to tamper with CCTV footage regarding Hanni.
This comes after her accusation that ILLIT’s manager told the junior girl group not to accept the NewJeans member’s greetings, amid the HYBE-ADOR-Min Hee Jin conflict.
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BELIFT LAB said:
“Following the scandalous accusations of plagiarism, we strongly demand that attempts to defame our debut artist with unfounded greeting issues be stopped immediately.”
According to the NewJeans mothers, the footage of staff “abusing” Hanni was deleted to cover up the controversy.
However, according to the timeline organized by the sub-label, the parents raised the issue on June 13 and CCTV footage from May 14 to that date, all reviewed, showed the two groups only met once, on May 27 .
“The footage captured the brief meeting between the two groups on May 27 as they shared a room at the HYBE facility for 5 minutes, and the footage showed the ILLIT members getting off the elevator and bowing 90 degrees to New Jeans member Hanni, which was standing before them, as they entered.”
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On June 19, BELIFT LAB reported to ADOR’s board of directors that Hanni’s claim never occurred.
But later on August 14, former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin also checked the footage and speculated that Hanni’s story might have happened after this.
However, the CCTV cameras in HYBE were only stored for 30 days, and since three months had already passed, it was impossible to do so. At the time, Min accused HYBE of deleting it on purpose.
The case has now reached the Environment and Labor Committee of the National Assembly and has summoned Hanni as a reference witness to discuss “bullying in the workplace”.
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READ ALSO: 3 idols who attended the National Assembly: NewJeans Hanni will talk about bullying in the workplace?
In response to this, the ILLIT label said:
“Since the matter was raised, we have always encouraged our artists, including those on other labels, to be respectful, so we have sincerely cooperated with the investigation.
However, despite having provided all the required explanations, new claims are being made that cannot be confirmed in fact and as a result, facts that never happened are raised in the state audit of the National Assembly, so we suspect that there may be another intention.”
BELIFT LAB also notified ADOR.
“If this issue continues to damage the reputation of our company, our artists and our members and interfere with their work, our company will take all possible measures.”
RELATED ARTICLE: Hanni Faces Backlash for Sharing Frustration with HYBE Artists Shunning NewJeans: ‘You Deserve It’
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Written by Eunice Dela Cruz
