HYBE COO Denies Both Eyelet Plagiarism, Music Pushback

BELIFT LAB CEO and HYBE COO Kim Tae-ho denied the allegations of plagiarizing and pushing out the album during a comprehensive national audit by the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee on the afternoon of the 24th.

Appearing as a witness at the request of Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Min Hyung-bae, who is a member of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, Kim replied, "I have never done that."

"We never sold records with a return condition. However, after the issue was raised externally, (HYBE) conducted an internal audit and found that less than 1% of the albums sold in 2023 were sold with a return condition," Kim said, adding, "We never signed a contract with a return condition, but (HYBE) has created an internal discipline to prevent us from selling albums in this way in the future."

HYBE also denied allegations of plagiarism. "It's not true," Kim said of the allegations that ILLIT plagiarized Newjeans, adding, "As a representative, I can tell you that we have filed civil and criminal lawsuits against Heejin Min, the in-house director who raised this issue."

Kim continued, "We are waiting for the judicial decision. We will comply with the relevant procedures and prove that this is not true through the court."

Finally, Mr. Kim concluded, "We deeply apologize for the great fatigue we have caused. I think the basic mission of entertainment is to entertain K-pop fans and the people of Korea, and I am sorry for that, and I will do my best to prevent this from happening again in the future."