“Hello, this is Belift Lab…” Belift Lab responded to allegations that ILLIT’s manager disrespected NewJeans’ Hanni. ILLIT’s dispute with NewJeans’ Hanni has escalated.
Belift Lab responded to a previous report on October 7 in which the parents of NewJeans members revealed that HYBE harassed and then allegedly covered up their mistreatment of Hanni.
Belift Lab responded to the allegations in a statement. Below is a translation of the entire statement.
This is Belift Lab, and welcome!
We are uncovering our position on Ilgan Sports’ article that was distributed on October 7. We are requesting that they cease making these allegations, which include laughable claims of plagiarism for which there is no evidence.
Koo Sung Won, the manager of ILLIT, has never told the members to ignore NewJeans. The NewJeans member has also never been ignored by ILLIT members.
An investigation that took place on June 13 at the request of NewJeans’ parents demonstrates this. On May 27, the groups were only in the same place for five minutes, and we have video of ILLIT members kneeling 90 degrees in front of a NewJeans member.
When we looked at the video on August 14 with the team of the former CEO Min Hee Jin, they said that there were no greetings after that scene, which suggested that there might be another one. However, the security company claims that this claim is problematic due to the inability to secure any additional footage because the 30-day video retention period had already expired. The side representing the former CEO contends that HYBE deliberately deleted the video. When interacting with artists, our protocol staff always uses respectful language and titles, so the very idea that they would say “ignore” is not consistent with objective facts. Despite their assertion that “the video where they said “ignore” was deleted,” the CCTV does not record audio, so this claim is invalid. We have sincerely committed to the investigation and have stressed the significance of treating artists from other labels with respect ever since this issue was brought up. However, despite providing all of the requested explanations, new claims that cannot be supported are being made. This raises questions about whether there are ulterior motives behind this, particularly now that this unverified matter is being discussed in an audit of the national assembly. We have not commented on this issue in order to protect our staff members, who are naturally in a weaker position than famous artists. Nevertheless, the affected employee is experiencing extreme unfairness and mental distress as efforts continue to establish false narratives as true. The vulnerable protocol staff member is truly harmed by bringing an issue that ought to remain within the goodwill domain of personnel matters between labels into the public arena. We have already sent two official responses and positions to ADOR in August and September following the presentation of this issue. A member of NewJeans mentioned this matter during a live event, despite our demands that the allegations cease. This prompted us to request an apology from that member and the ADOR label; however, we have not yet received a response. We clearly state that we will investigate all options for resolving this issue if it continues to harm our company, artists, and staff’s reputation.
