As the audit and investigation into K-pop group NewJeans’ agency ADOR and its CEO, Min Hee-jin, continued about suspicions of a takeover attempt of ADOR, new news reports stated that she claimed the chairman of HYBE copied her ideas to create Grammy-nominated idol group BTS. 

ADOR is an agency under HYBE, which owns 80 percent of the company. Min Hee-jin, a former creative director at SM Entertainment, holds an 18 percent stake in ADOR. 

HYBE Chairman Bang Si-hyuk (left) and ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin (HYBE)

BTS (Big Hit Music) 

(From the top) NewJeans, ILLIT, Riize and TWS (X) 

Korean media outlets reported that based on documents from computers retrieved by HYBE’s audit team from ADOR, Min Hee-jin claimed that “ILLIT also copied NewJeans, TWS also copied NewJeans and Riize also copied NewJeans.” 

ILLIT debuted in March under HYBE’s Belift Lab while TWS debuted under HYBE’s Pledis Entertainment. Riize debuted under SM Entertainment. 

In addition, according to the news reports, a document was found wherein Min Hee-jin claimed something to the effect that "Chairman Bang Si-hyuk copied me and created BTS." Bang Si-hyuk is the chairman of HYBE. 

In order to bolster its claims of copying, some ADOR executives, including Min Hee-jin, conducted “interviews” with employees of agencies related to ILLIT, TWS and Riize with with the purpose of “strengthening the evidence that they copied NewJeans” and also conducted public opinion monitoring on various Internet bulletin boards, the news reports added.  

“I heard that related label employees were repeatedly asked with the intention of asking whether a certain group was imitating NewJeans,” a source told Korean media outlets. 

Min Hee-jin earlier denied the allegations that she was attempting to take over ADOR and break away from HYBE. 

Korean media reports also stated that some ADOR executives attempted to sell ADOR shares to sovereign wealth funds believed to be in Singapore and Saudi Arabia.