Min Hee-jin’s Side Denies Robbing NewJeans Members From Source Music, “Will Take Legal Action”

On July 23rd, Min Hee-jin’s representative released a statement regarding the allegation that the female CEO took trainees, who are now NewJeans members, from Source Music. In particular, the CEO said, “It’s not true at all”, adding “We will take legal response”.

Earlier on the same day, accusations were raised that Min Hee-jin participated in Source Music’s debut project of trainee group N Team (currently NewJeans), which included NewJeans members, but she intentionally caused the debut to delay due to her dissatisfaction with not having control over the project. 

According to reports, Source Music had been preparing for N Team’s project since 2018 intending to make their debut in the third quarter of 2021. NewJean’s debut song “Attention” had been prepared for the group since 2021 when the members were still trainees under Source Music.

The released Kakaotalk conversations between Min Hee-jin and a shaman also show Min Hee-jin saying, “Looking at the company, I want to have them because I think it would be a waste to let them debut there”, “I will fight and win over So Sung-jin (CEO of Source Music) to have my label’s name representing the girl group”, “It would have been so difficult without the instructions and guides from you (the shaman)”, etc. 

HYBE and Source Music planned to debut N Team in the third quarter of 2021 and S Team (currently LE SSERAFIM) in the first quarter of 2022, but Min Hee-jin’s repeated delays eventually caused the plan to be canceled.

However, Min Hee-jin said in her emergency press conference that she cast the members by herself. She accused HYBE of not keeping their promises of debuting NewJeans first by announcing LE SSERAFIM’s debut before introducing NewJeans and claimed that Source Music neglected NewJeans members.