ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin Denies Allegations of Stealing NewJeans Members from Source Music and Premature Debut Delay
ADOR, the label of K-Pop girl group NewJeans, has strongly denied allegations that it “stole” the members from rival agency Source Music and intentionally delayed their debut to take control of the project.
ADOR Refutes Dispatch Report
On July 23, ADOR released a statement refuting a report published by Korean media outlet Dispatch. The statement reads: “The content of the article covered in the Dispatch report is a false fact reconstructed based on speculation, and we will take strong legal action against it.”
This indicates that ADOR, NewJeans, and Min Hee Jin, CEO of ADOR, are all being accused of defamation and possible obstruction of business by Dispatch.
Dispatch’s Accusations
Dispatch’s report claimed that Min Hee Jin took Minji, Hanni, Danielle, and Haerin from Source Music, where they were trainees, to ADOR and debuted them as NewJeans.
The report further alleged that Min Hee Jin, who was previously the branding director for a project group called “N Team” at Source Music that included the four members, purposely delayed the group’s debut by holding up her work. Dispatch also stated that NewJeans was initially intended to be HYBE’s first girl group.
ADOR Fires Back: Contract Termination and Privacy Concerns
ADOR responded to the specific allegations with their own claims. They stated that the trainee contracts between Source Music and the NewJeans members had already been terminated, and that the contracts did not include permission to use the trainees’ likenesses or voices.
ADOR argued, “Exposing the personal information of trainees who have already terminated their contracts and artists who have moved to other agencies to the public without permission and leaking various data, including medical records and related materials and demos, is a breach of contract and a serious crime.”
ADOR Claims Source Music Leaked Trainee Footage
ADOR specifically accused Source Music of releasing videos of the trainees, which they consider a “very serious illegal act that infringes on the NewJeans members’ portrait rights.” They demanded “immediate action to protect the artists.”
Denial of Shaman Involvement
The Dispatch report also included a claim that Min Hee Jin consulted with a shaman during the development of NewJeans. ADOR addressed this by stating, “We will criticize the unethical behavior of HYBE, which provided false information and data to defame the CEO of a subsidiary company by having a third party extract it without permission and editing it at will, and the media outlet that made it into an article, and we will take strong legal action.”
ADOR Disputes N Team Debut Delay
ADOR directly refuted Dispatch’s claim that Min Hee Jin’s negligence caused the indefinite delay of the N Team’s debut. To support their argument, ADOR released a 2021 email that they say outlines the PT (planning team) material for “N Team,” also referred to as “21 Team” in 2020, which was created by Min Hee Jin during his time as CBO (Chief Business Officer) of Big Hit Entertainment (now HYBE).
The email reportedly details disagreements between the three companies (HYBE, Source Music, and ADOR) regarding the concept for the new girl group.
Timeline of Events According to ADOR
ADOR provided a timeline of events related to N Team:
- March 2020: Big Hit’s marketing team proposed a launch strategy for the “21 Team.”
- Min Hee Jin, then Chief Creative Officer at Big Hit, disagreed with the direction and prepared his own launch strategy.
- May 2020: Min Hee Jin presented his launch strategy to Bang Si Hyuk (Chairman of HYBE), So Sung Jin (CEO of Source Music), and Source Music officials.
- Chairman Bang reportedly stated that Min Hee Jin’s plan was excellent but difficult to execute with Source Music’s infrastructure and suggested using ADOR for the project.
- August 2020: Source Music presented a pre-planning draft that Min Hee Jin claimed significantly resembled his own launch strategy. Source Music reportedly admitted to this.
ADOR argued that these events contradicted Dispatch’s portrayal of Min Hee Jin intentionally delaying the group’s debut.
ADOR Accuses HYBE of Unethical Data Collection
ADOR further claimed that HYBE never responded to an email attached to their statement which refuted the Dispatch report. They said, “We are releasing the official email that everyone shared at the time, not the patchwork data provided by HYBE, which makes false claims. It is much more accurate to share the context and clear up the confusion.”
ADOR also raised concerns about HYBE’s data practices. They stated, “While there are Slack conversation contents and KakaoTalk conversation materials from the people involved at the time, we can sufficiently prove more content with additional.
