"To Brand Her as an Illegal Resident"...ADOR Faces Complaint Over Alleged Leak of Hanni's Visa Information

[Financial News] ADOR, the agency of NewJeans, has been reported to police on suspicion of leaking Hanni's visa information. Hanni is a Vietnamese-Australian with dual citizenship in Vietnam and Australia.
According to Yonhap News Agency and others on the 28th, pop culture critic Kim Sung-soo held a press conference in front of Yongsan Police Station in Seoul that day and said he had filed a complaint against ADOR and its employees for violating the Personal Information Protection Act.
Hanni holds dual citizenship in Vietnam and Australia, and she needs an E-6 entertainment visa to stay and work in South Korea.
Kim claimed that ADOR and others leaked Hanni's visa-related personal information to the media and others without her consent during the dispute over her exclusive contract.
The complaint reportedly states that ADOR obtained personal information such as the type of Hanni's E-6 entertainment visa, its expiration date, and the status of her visa extension application documents through its work, then leaked it to some entertainment media reporters, violating the Personal Information Protection Act.
The NewJeans members, including Hanni, had been in conflict with their agency, ADOR, after the dismissal of former CEO Min Hee-jin. In November 2024, they announced at a press conference that they were terminating their exclusive contracts.
However, the court ruled in ADOR's favor in both the injunction request and the first trial of the lawsuit seeking confirmation of the validity of the exclusive contracts. Without filing appeals, the members then announced one by one that they intended to return to the agency. Haerin and Hyein returned to ADOR in November last year, and Hanni also went back to the agency in December.
ADOR said it was in talks with Minji in a positive direction. As for Danielle, the company notified her of contract termination in December last year, holding her responsible for the delay in returning after leaving the team, and the legal process is now under way.
During this process, Hanni's existing visa expired. In February last year, some entertainment media reported that if Hanni left ADOR, the agency would disappear, and she could become an undocumented resident because the visa requirements would no longer be met. However, the issue of illegal stay was put to rest after it became known that Hanni had obtained a new visa.
Kim argued that ADOR tried to exploit Hanni's visa information to gain the upper hand in the dispute and brand her as an illegal resident.
He pointed out, "The expiration date of a foreign resident's visa and the progress of a visa extension application are information that only the immigration authorities, the person concerned, and the agency handling the work can know. Can highly confidential internal information that cannot even be accessed through reporting alone really be leaked to the public behind the anonymous veil of 'multiple music industry insiders'?"
The complaint also included as evidence a statement released by the parents of NewJeans members on February 12 last year.
At the time, the parents said, "ADOR pressured the parents and the members by using visa issues, which are inevitably sensitive for foreign residents in South Korea, demanding signatures on extension consent forms listing ADOR as the agency and sending emails warning that refusal could lead to illegal stay. We strongly regret that information that only ADOR, which knows the members' personal information, could have provided was carelessly spread through the media."
They also said that about 70 speculative articles about the type of visa and related matters were published over two days, raising concerns about privacy violations.

Meanwhile, according to multiple media outlets, ADOR has not yet issued a separate statement regarding the complaint.

[email protected] Kim Soo-yeon Reporter