Former Ador CEO Min Hee-jin ‘s side refuted Source Music’s defamation claims.
Source Music argued that Min’s statements at a press conference last year—claiming, “I picked NewJeans” and “The promise to debut them as HYBE’s first girl group wasn’t kept” were false. The company insisted that it, not Min, cast the NewJeans members and that no promise had been made regarding the first group debut.
Former CEO Min’s side argued that the context, not the statement itself, should be considered.
They explained, “Starting around July 2019, HYBE and Chairman Bang Si-hyuk had been promoting externally that former CEO Min would be in charge of directing HYBE’s first girl group,” and “The members of New Jeans joined the N Team project, where former CEO Min was involved in the preparation process from the concept stage, with the expectation that they would become the first girl group through such media reports. This is what is written in the plaintiff’s report.”
They continued, “The debut was delayed because the music concept that Chairman Bang promised to provide was not provided on time, and he suddenly broke his promise by giving up on the plan to debut Team N first and saying that he would debut Team S first,” and said that Chairman Bang’s breaking of his promise was the beginning of the problem.
Regarding the entity responsible for casting the New Jeans members, they stated, “They claim that Source Music was the one who actually selected the members, cast them on the street, and signed them, but we need to look at the context. The significance of the casting is that former CEO Min selected the members of Team N from among many candidates, assigned roles, and branded the newly launched girl group.”
Regarding Source Music’s claim that Min called the company a “Thug for selling trainees,” her team clarified: “‘Are you a thug?’ and ‘You are a thug’ are different statements. At the press conference, Min did not call them a thug. Saying ‘they sold trainees’ reflects Source Music’s previous opposition to transferring trainees and their request for ADOR’s equity.”
Finally, Min’s legal team reiterated that neither Chairman Bang nor Source Music made sufficient efforts to debut NewJeans. They addressed Source Music’s evidence of Min’s message, “I also wanted to leave last. The protagonist comes last,” explaining that it reflected her objection to S-team debuting first after being informed by then-CEO Park Ji Won, rather than agreeing with the decision.
