The judgement was released to the public recently.
1 hour ago
Min Hee Jin, the former ADOR CEO and creative mind behind the girl group NewJeans, recently achieved a major lawsuit win against Serian Heu, the creative director of ILLIT.
ILLIT | HYBE
The lawsuit was originally filed by Heu, accusing Min Hee Jin of false claims and defamation after she made explosive allegations of plagiarism regarding similarities between ILLIT and NewJeans.
Min Hee Jin
Heu lost the lawsuit in August 2026, but the official judgment was made public only recently, which explained in detail why the lawsuit was dismissed. The court stated that Serian Heu was never mentioned explicitly by Min Hee Jin. Her allegations were related to the concept and creative vision behind ILLIT’s debut, but Heu never had any front-facing role in the group’s debut.
In addition, the judge noted that the backlash Heu faced after Min Hee Jin’s publicized claims was mostly self-inflicted, primarily due to the “middle finger” picture she posted on social media during Min Hee Jin’s press conference.
The judgment also took account of the evidence presented showing that during the earliest stages of ILLIT’s debut, Heu’s team had explicitly requested the planning materials of NewJeans, and it was actually handed over to them by HYBE. Since the paper trail regarding this material sharing was logged as a matter of objective fact, the court ruled that Min Hee Jin exposing its timeline didn’t constitute defamation.
The 12-page judgment has sparked heated reactions online, inviting further criticism of Serian Heu.
| theqoo
- “If you look at the court ruling, she had virtually no prior experience producing idols. While ILLIT was formed through a survival show, she wasn’t involved in that program at all. So, neither the public nor Min Hee Jin could reasonably single her out or target her in this dispute—it just doesn’t hold water. In fact, she was the one who posted that poster and the middle finger first. It really makes you wonder why the lawsuit even happened.”
- “Is she still working as ILLIT’s director?”
- “What did she sue for? Defamation?”
- “I mean, that’s true. She never even mentioned Serian Hu. She didn’t even know who she was. It only spread across online communities because the person herself posted about it on social media…The people Min Hee Jin explicitly called out weren’t Serian Heu, but Belift Lab, HYBE, and ILLIT.”
- “I didn’t even know her name. I got to know after she posted the ‘f*ck you’ picture.”
- “Give us NewJeans back.”
- “Seriously. Who even cares who Serian Heu is?”
I would be so genuinely fucking embarrassed if serian heu was my creative director seriously i’d be so pissed omg it makes me laugh
— 🦋 (@njzfaerie) September 16, 2026
not the court documents calling serian heu a no name office worker that could’ve never created illit nor their stolen concept 😂😂😂
— jenbluuu (@jenbluuu) September 16, 2026
We all know that Heu Serian would have immediately appealed after her loss, as with Hybe’s other cases. The funniest thing is her claims are so baseless that she probably didn’t have any grounds to do so https://t.co/G7YCbey3nz
— Sheepymcsheep (@sheepymcsheepy) September 16, 2026