Police referred HYBE chairman Bang Si-hyuk and four others to prosecutors
South Korean police referred HYBE chairman Bang Si-hyuk and four others to prosecutors last Thursday, alleging they made ₩263.1bn by misleading shareholders about a listing they were already preparing.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's financial crimes investigation division put the alleged illicit gains at ₩263.1bn, about £144m, and said a court had granted a pre-indictment preservation order covering the entire amount.
Police also referred HYBE's chief executive, Jason Lee Jae-sang, who ran the company's innovation growth centre at the time, and its former chief financial officer, Kwon Yong-sang. Two private equity principals went with them: Kim Chang-hee of New Main Equity and Yang Jun-seok of Eastone PE.
Police put the gains from HYBE's listing at ₩263bn
Investigators described the case as organised, premeditated financial and securities crime carried out by specialists drawn from across the capital markets, according to Seoul Economic Daily. That framing makes it a question about how the company was run rather than about one man's windfall.
The listing at issue is the one that turned a Seoul record label into an asset foreign institutions could own, and it remains the reference point every K-pop valuation since has been measured against.
According to police, between August and October 2019 Bang and others told existing investors, including venture capital funds, that Big Hit Entertainment, as HYBE was then called, had no plan to go public, and encouraged them to sell their holdings to a vehicle set up by a private equity fund.
From October to November the same fund raised money by telling its own investors that a listing was certain and returns guaranteed, police said. Seoul Shinmun reported in September last year that investigators believed Bang held a confidential agreement entitling him to 30 per cent of the fund's gains. HYBE listed in October 2020.
A referral is not a charge. Prosecutors at the Seoul Southern District office now decide whether to indict, and they have already turned the police back twice.
In April they returned two requests for an arrest warrant, asking investigators to substantiate how the capital market itself had been harmed and to consider whether ordinary fraud was the better charge. Seoul Economic Daily reported on the day of the referral that further supplementary investigation looked unavoidable, because that disagreement is unresolved.
Bang denies the allegations. His lawyers told SPOTV News in April that it was regrettable a warrant had been sought after long and faithful cooperation, and that he would take part in the legal process and do his best to explain himself.
Speaking to reporters outside the police station in September last year, he apologised for the concern his affairs had caused and said he would cooperate with the investigation.
The referral arrives six weeks after HYBE reported the best quarter in its history. Revenue rose 105.5 per cent year on year to ₩1.45tn and operating profit 159.3 per cent to ₩170.9bn in the three months to June, according to results published on 28 July.
Concert revenue drove it, up 243.3 per cent to ₩647.7bn on the BTS ARIRANG tour. Lee presented those figures on the earnings call.
One man named in the investigation is not in the country. Police said a former chief investment officer, Kim Jung-dong, left shortly before a search of HYBE's offices in June last year. They have obtained an arrest warrant, placed him on the wanted list and asked Interpol for a red notice.
The sum the court has frozen is more than five times the operating profit HYBE reported for the whole of 2025.
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