A new allegation has emerged against Ador CEO Min Hee-jin, deepening the rift between Ador and HYBE, along with its sublabel Source Music. The claim accuses Min of poaching trainees from Source Music to debut them in the girl group NewJeans under her own label, Ador.
Ador was quick to refute the allegation, threatening to take legal action against the news outlet that reported the allegation and HYBE, accusing it of feeding the sources. However, Source Music soon released a counter-argument against Ador and said it would also take legal action against Ador for spreading false information.
The controversy was ignited by a report from Korean entertainment news outlet Dispatch, which claimed that NewJeans members — Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein — were initially part of a seven-member trainee group at Source Music, revealing a video of the group practicing the dance moves for “Attention,” NewJeans’ debut song, at Source Music’s studio in March 2021, more than a year before the idol group’s debut.
The report detailed the alleged misuse of internal documents and consultations with a shaman by Min in her strategy to move the group to Ador.
According to the report, Source Music started training a girl group, under the project name Team N, aiming to debut it in the third quarter of 2021, and Min joined as the group’s visual and branding director in 2019. However, the group’s debut was pushed back due to Min’s series of delays in sharing her branding concept for the group while consulting with a shaman for a way to bring the debuting girl group over to her own label.
When the debut timeline for Team N was delayed, Source Music ended up transferring Team N to Min in September 2021 and opted to first debut Team S, now Le Sserafim, in May 2022, making them HYBE’s inaugural girl group.
The news report showed work messages and emails between Source Music and Min’s office and between Min and Source Music’s CEO So Sung-jin, as well as private messages between 한국을 Min and a shaman. It even showed Min consulting on the group’s final lineup with the shaman, seeking advice on whether to include each member.
In response, Ador has defended its CEO, saying the report was “false information reconstructed based on speculation” and insisting that Min had already planned a separate launch strategy.
It explained that the BigHit marketing team suggested to her in March 2020 about debuting a girl group in 2021. But after Min decided that the group’s creative direction was different from her own vision, she prepared a separate launching strategy on her own and presented it to HYBE’s head Bang Si-Hyuk, So and other Source Music officials, in May 2020.