Court Documents Reveal Evidence Of ILLIT’s Alleged Plagiarism Of NewJeans

Newly surfaced court documents have shed light on internal conversations that supported the claims of alleged similarities between ILLIT and NewJeans. This played a role in former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin‘s win against HYBE in their legal dispute. It was ruled that plagiarism had been on the table.

BELIFT LAB Fails To Provide Evidence To Refute Claims Regarding ILLIT’s Plagiarism Issue

On February 27, 2025, the court documents were released to the public, as per most court cases in South Korea. These include testimony and recorded conversations that were submitted as evidence.

According to the court record, a former employee identified as BF who worked on the defendant’s storytelling team stated that they provided a project proposal for “G” at the request of Creative Director BH. BH is a BELIFT LAB staff working on ILLIT’s production, while G is the project proposal for NewJeans.

In a June 20, 2024 recorded phone call, BF explained how they ended up giving NewJeans’ planning documents to BELIFT LAB.

“(You said you showed this to Mr./Ms. BJ, right?) Yes, yes. Originally to BJ— oh, to BH. BH. (BH?) Yes, BH. At that time, they had just formed the group and were saying they genuinely didn’t know what to do. (Yes.) At that time, my work was pretty inspiring, so I said, ‘I have some materials — would you like to take a look?’ and showed them.
… I thought my materials were very well organized conceptually, so I shared them at that time.
(So BH asked you to share them?) Yes, that’s right.
I thought, ‘Wouldn’t this be similar?’ … When I see Q uploading videos and such… they clearly looked at and referenced all of this, so why do they keep denying it?
I think they must have struggled internally at the time, but they just told me they wanted help from me… They said to me, ‘Ah, this is so hard. Nothing is working.’ But I couldn’t really know what the actual working situation was like…
I showed those materials because they seemed completely lost. Of course, maybe they had already roughly finished their work and they were just venting to me — I can’t know the real progression of their production.”

In another section of the court filing, it states that R (ILLIT), had used the same production formula as G (NewJeans).

“This issue began when R, who debuted under a label within the parent company, used the same production formula as G’s debut, copied the design logo, imitated the concept, and even carried out similar promotions. The matter was raised to the CEO as a result.”
The reference to using the “same production formula,” copying a “design logo,” and mimicking the “concept” and promotional strategy has drawn significant attention from fans, many of whom have previously pointed out similarities between ILLIT’s rollout and NewJeans’ debut blueprint.

The documents validate her earlier claims that elements of NewJeans’ branding and production formula were replicated internally. The court previously ruled that HYBE will bear the legal costs and that Min Hee Jin’s exercise of the put option is legitimate, and that HYBE must pay her ₩25.5 billion KRW (about $17.6 million USD).

More on the report can be found here.

Newly Leaked Debut Plans For NewJeans And ILLIT Raise Plagiarism Suspicions Once More