Source Music, Ador CEO Min locked in legal battle

Hybe subsidiary Source Music and Ador CEO Min Hee-jin are taking legal action against each other for purportedly spreading false information regarding the launch of K-pop girl group NewJeans.

Source Music took to social media platform X on Tuesday to post: “Min Hee-jin’s claim that Source Music copied her (girl group) launching strategy is false.”

“We did not copy the launching strategy she presented when she was the then-chief business officer at Source Music,” Source Music said.

According to the label, Min’s launch strategy that Hybe Chairman Bang Si-hyuk had approved in May 2020 was for a new girl group to be launched under Min’s label Ador, not the so-called “N team.”

“N team” was a project girl group training under Source Music.

“Min is distorting the truth to make it seem as if Chairman Bang told her to use her launching strategy on N team,” claimed Source Music, saying that the strategy was not made to be used for N team in the first place.

This comes after Min released a statement earlier Tuesday refuting allegations that she “stole” some of the trainees from Source Music who would later go on to form NewJeans.

The allegation was raised by local entertainment media outlet Dispatch.

Dispatch reported Tuesday that Min took Minji, Hanni, Danielle and Haerin of NewJeans from Source Music, where they were being trained as part of the N team.

The report lays out that Min, then the chief business officer at Source Music in charge of branding the N team, delayed the debut of the trainees as she sought to expand her role and responsibilities for their debut.

The statement from Min's lawyers rebutting the allegation said, “Chairman Bang had told Min to proceed with her launching strategy on her own label as it was quite good but it seemed difficult to proceed with it under Source Music’s infrastructure.”

Min claims that Source Music presented a new girl group launch project in August 2020 about which she made an official complaint, as it had copied a lot of her launch strategy presented in May 2020, and that Source Music had admitted copying it.

Earlier this month, Source Music filed a 500 million won ($361,000) lawsuit against Min for the alleged damage sustained by girl group Le Sserafim, citing defamation and disruption of business due to Min’s press conference in April.

Both Min and Source Music said they will release further documents to get the facts straight in the public record, if necessary.