If this thread is tl;dr for you (which it is) ...
Original news broken by soshixbang
MHJ 2 hour press conference:
English transcript:
English subbed:
Original full:
Complete timeline by ItsActuallyMe
Current: May 13, 2024 9:39AM Pacific | Updated as details emerge
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Timeline of significant events based on media reports
2023
April 25 – Ador’s board of directors is reorganized. Hybe personnel are replaced with MHJ loyalists such as Vice President Shin Dong-Hoon and Chief Creative Director Kim Ye-min.
May 19 – MHJ and other Ador executives receive 20% of the shares in Ador from Hybe for long term retention and motivational reasons.
End of 2023 – Hybe receives reports that MHJ is meeting with investors to seek independence with NewJeans. Hybe ignores it for now.
December 2023 - Breakdown of negotiations occurs between MHJ and Hybe regarding her shareholder agreement. Said to be the main root of the conflict. They disagree on the non-competition clause and the revision of the put-option on MHJ's Ador shares. It is believed if Hybe can prove their accusations against MHJ in court, then they could reacquire MHJ's Ador shares at a price well below market value.
2024
February 2024 - “Mr A.” who worked at Hybe’s financial department (IR Team Leader) moves to Ador and becomes a close associated of MHJ and received a Vice President position.
February 16 - MHJ delivered a revised version of the shareholder agreement to Hybe requesting that she receive the right to take actions over contracts at Ador, including NewJeans' contract, by herself. Hybe rejects the proposal.
Early 2024 – Hybe receives a tip that MHJ is planning to take over Ador in collaboration with a private equity fund. Hybe is said to have tried to quietly resolve the issue with MHJ but failed.
March 23 – Mr. A writes a report setting out plans for Ador’s independence
March 25 – Illit debuts
March 26 - NewJeans announce comeback and future plans
March 29 – Mr. A writes another report setting out plans for Ador’s independence. Bang Si-Hyuk, Park Ji-won, and Scooter Braun reappointed as directors on Hybe's board.
March 31 - NewJeans' parents send an email to MHJ covey their complaints about mistreatment of the group by Hybe. They ask MHJ to share the email with Hybe. In the email, the parents share their concern about the similarities between Illit and Newjeans that they view as intended imitations, aggrevated by the fact that Belift hired somebody whose previous working experience in the industry only includes newjeans. The parents convey that they and the members are suffering mentally and feel helpless seeing all the comparisons being made between the two groups. The parents also bring up the issue of chairman Bang Si-Hyuk ignoring the members when they encountered each other at the company, even failing to greet them. Lastly, they point at Hybe's supposed broken promises in the past to be their first girl group, which ended up being Le Sserafim instead. The parents describe the situation as a "nightmare" back then, with one member even contemplating giving up on debuting. They demand a response and corrective action from Hybe.
End of March - Internal document written by Adore’s Vice President (Mr. A) are discovered which set out plans to prevent Hybe from touching Ador and ultimately escape completely. He also downloaded a large amount of confidential information.
April 3 - Ador sends the email from NewJeans' parents to Hybe and Belift together with their own comments. Ador states that as the rights holder of NewJeans IP they are equally displead with the Illit rights infringment. They accuse Hybe of benchmarking NewJeans' success to the point that they relied on the similarities perceived by the media and the public to go viral. Ador considers it as the parent company's tyranny against its subsidiary.
April 4 - MHJ is said to have held a conversation in a chat room with Ador executives about using her put option in January 2025, intentionally lower Ador's value to turn it into an 'empty shell', and having investors ready to take over Hybe's shares in Ador.
April 15/16 - Illit's song Magnetic debuts on Billboard's Hot100 chart.
April 16 - MHJ resends the internal complaint made on April 3. Hybe sends a response to Ador regarding the internal complaint. around the same time to Hybe CEO Park Ji-Won, Chairman Bang Si-Hyuk, and Hybe America’s CEO Scooter Braun, directly criticizing Illit copying NewJeans. The complaint also includes critiques about Hybe's attitude towards its multi-label system, declaring it lacks the proper preparation and understanding. She requests to receive a statement by April 24th.
April 22 – Hybe sends a response to the 2nd email send by MHJ regarding the internal complaint at 10am. MHJ reads the response around 12am.
Hybe starts an internal audit of Ador in the afternoon which shortly after is shared with the media. Hybe releases a statement accusing MHJ and Ador’s executives of trying to break free from Hybe. Hybe also suspects Mr. A of transferring sensitive financial information such as artists contract details from Hybe to Ador and possible external actors. MHJ publishes a first response accusing Hybe of damaging the NewJeans brand through Illit’s plargisim. Later MHJ releases another statement rejecting Hybe’s accusation.
April 23 – Hybe CEO Park Ji-Won sends out a company notice regarding the audit stressing that business will continue as usual. Mr. A described as Ador’s VP comes forward saying that the plans to get Ador out of hybe were only his personal thoughts and have nothing to do with MHJ.
April 24 - MHJ hands in the audit questionaire to Hybe but witholds from giving them her laptop and specific documents. Ador demands MHJ's answers are kept secret otherwise they'll take legal action
MHJ also gives a short statement to KBS accusing Hybe of "discriminating between subsidaries for a long time, and that the core of the conflict is that artists have suffered damage"
Hybe is said to have started an internal audit into its other subsidaries as well
Protest truck send by anonymous NewJeans fans to the Hybe building, conveying that they support NewJeans under Hybe and demand MHJ to "no longer use NewJeans and their family", and to "stop slandering other artists"
April 25 - The mothers of three NewJeans member hold a meeting with Hybe executives including CEO Park Ji-won. Park Ji-won shares with them what MHJ did wrong according to Hybe. The mothers stress however that all the parents want NewJeans with MHJ. The parents also bring up the issue of Bang Si-hyuk ignoring the members again. The executives response to them is that they misunderstoof because Bang Si-hyuk might have 'facial recognition impairment'. Hybe also tells them that they will give the newjeans members a long vacation after their Japanese fanmeet in June Additionally Hybe shares they are looking for a 'grammy winning producer' as replacement which would take about a 1 year and 6 months but they're trying to get one as quickly as possible. The mothers leave the meeting wondering if that means NewJeans vacation/hiatus will be that long.
Hybe releases the results of the internal audit, officially accusing MHJ of leading the attempt to seize management rights of Ador
Hybe releases parts of transcribed conversations MHJ has held with a Shaman who is a close friend of hers which include controversial discussions about BTS's military service and detailed advice on Ador's management
MHJ holds a two hour long press conference to reveal her side of the story. She berates Hybe's accusations of seizing management rights as being groundless, and with the help of Kakao chats reveals the complicated history of her relationship with Hybe, specifically its CEO Park Ji-won and Chairman Bang Si-Hyuk. According to MHJ they have mistreated NewJeans by repeatedly privileging other groups such as Le Sserafim and Illit. She further details how the upset NewJeans members and their parents have offered their support and comfort to her
Hybe releases a statement declaring MHJ's remarks aren't worthy of a response and stresses that it is focused on giving the NewJeans members the help and support they need | Hybe files a criminal complaint with the police against MHJ and Ador Vice President Shin Dong-Hoon
April 26 - NewJeans releases a music video for their comeback song 'Bubblegum'
Hybe responds to MHJ's press conference. Hybe reaffirms its accusations against MHJ, stressing their evidence shows there is clear intent to move Ador out of Hybe. Hybe also rejects MHJ's accusation that they mistreated NewJeans by highlighting they provided Ador with extensive funds from the beginning. Hybe also points out that they have released a great amount of press releases for NewJeans that matches or exceeds the amount other Hybe groups have received. Lastly Hybe accuses MHJ of using NewJeans as 'hostages' to blackmail the company.
April 27 - Hybe is attempting to contact NewJeans parents but according to MHJ the parents are not willing to respond
April 28 - MHJ replies that the meeting scheduled for the 30th won't take place. Hybe, in anticipation this, had applied to the court for permission to hold an Extraordinary General Meeting on 25th. The hearing to decide this will take place on April 30th @ 4:35PM KST.
April 30 - An Ador shareholder meeting will be held at which Hybe is said to demand to resignation of MHJ. The meeting can only be held if Ador's board of directors attend, otherwise Hybe will have to hold the meeting in court which will take around two months to be organized.
May 2 - Reports come out about MHJ's demand from February to receive the right to take actions over contracts at Ador including the exclusive contract of NewJeans by herself. Hybe suspects that this is in line with the transcripts they found of a plan to make Ador 'an empty shell'
Ador releases a statement refuting the reports about MHJ's demand, saying the inentions behind the request were purely to safeguard Ador's independence and prevent a repeat of interferences that they believed happened during NewJeans debut process
Ador releases another lenghty statement refuting several of the media reports that came out in the previous days. Ador reiterates that Hybe's audit is groundless and illegal and is further an infringement of privacy and human rights as Hybe revealed Kakao chats to the public on Aprill 22. Ador also refutes that MHJ was driven by financial desires, emphasizing that the reported 30x multiplier on the put option that MHJ demanded was not a priority but was based on the potential of debuting a boygroup. Ador concludes the statememt by stressing that Hybe's actions over the last week have damaged NewJeans brand and that Hybe should stop its public trail of MHJ and use common sense to allow Ador to focus on its own management
Park Ji-won apologizes to Hybe's shareholders in an earning calls about the damage the events of the last week have caused.
May 7 - MHJ files a provisional injunction to ban Hybe from using its voting rights to oust her during the general shareholder meeting. She states that Hybe firing her would violate her shareholder contract and hurt the corporate value of Ador and its artists.
May 9 - Hybe audits Ador's styling team leader on suspicions of embezzlement and breach of trust.
May 10 - Ador board meeting is held. The board agrees to hold a general shareholder meeting on May 31
The board also makes a statement that Hybe 'illegally' audited Ador's styling team leader for suspicions of embezzlement and breach of trust on May 9. Hybe believes the team leader received unreported payments for newjeans' activities from advertisement companies instead of received the payments for from Ador. Ador rejects this accusation as according to them there was no financial damage for Ador and that this type of contractual relationship is common in the industry. They also stress that it was already shared with Hybe's HR and ER department in February. They further accuse the auditor of abusing its authority by unreasonably pressuring and coercing the team leader at her home to hand over her company laptop and personal mobile phone
Hybe rejects Ador's statement on the audit by stressing that the audit was conducted legally and with the consent and cooperation of the styling team leader. Hybe says that the team leader admitted to receiving 100s of millions of won worth of money and materials from an outsourcing company with the approval of MHJ for several years. According to Hybe this is a clear illegality as they payments should have been recognized as official company sales. Hybe also reveals a transcript of a Kakaotalk conversation between CEO Min Hee-jin (nickname *) and vice-presidents L and S on February 18, 2024. Hive side claimed that this “confirms that the team leader’s receipt of money was done with CEO Min’s approval,” and that “Adore management conspired to use Hive as an excuse to solve the problem.”
Lastly, Hybe contends that MHJ's reporting the internal audit of May 9 in a misrepresented manner to the public defames the company and that they will take civil and criminal action against her for it
Hybe and Ador each release one more rebuttal that basically repeats their arguments.
May 12 - A mother of one of the NewJeans members gives a phone call interview to a media outlet that will be published the next day
May 13 - The email send by Ador to Hybe on March 31 conveying NewJeans parents' complaints about mistreatment of the group is made public. Hybe responds by declaring that the accusation of Bang Si-Hyuk ignoring NewJeans' members is a false, one-sided claim, and that the email in general is part of MHJ's scheme to seize management rights and pursue private interests.
The phone call interview from a mother of one of the NewJeans members that was held on May 12 is published. Hybe responds to it by saying that the mentioned vacation during the meeting held on April 25 is not the supposed to be interpreted as the 1 year and 6 month period they would need to get a new producer on board. According to Hybe it should be interpreted as the intention to take special care of NewJeans to support them to become great artists. Hybe ends their statement by reiterating that MHJ is using NewJeans and their parents to inflame public sentiment for her own greed, and that they have sufficient evidence against MHJ that will be revealed in court.
NewJeans choreographers express on their instagram accounts their anger about Illit's choreography plagirazing NewJeans' choreography
May 17 - First hearing of MHJ's provisional injunction to block Hybe from using its shareholder rights to remove her at the general shareholder meeting.
May 24 - NewJeans releases double single album 'How Sweet'
May 31 - General sharholder meeting will be held. If MHJ loses the injunction she will be officially removed on this day, but if the wins the injunction Hybe will be unable to remove her.
*reminder that these are not facts just reports from the media and the parties involved
Article:
Naver Article in Korean on the conflict
hopefully it doesn't get to 360 pages fast 
