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BTS’ agency HYBE chairman and founder Bang Si-Hyuk has been accused of alleged capital market violations involving the company’s IPO process. For those who don’t know, this case dates back to 2020, before HYBE entered the stock market and operated as Big Hit Entertainment. According to many reports that surfaced from investigative sectors, the chairman had allegedly signed a few confidential shareholder agreements with private equity firms.
Before HYBE was publicly listed, these agreements were made, including Stick Investment, Eastone Equity Partners, and Newmain Equity. Bang was supposed to get 30% of the capital gains if the company went public within the given deadline. Upon failing, the chairman was supposed to purchase the shares at their original price. While HYBE went public, Bang reportedly received 400 billion KRW.
During the IPO process, these agreements were not disclosed, and because of omitting this information, it impacted the share prices. Early investors started to claim that they suffered financial loss. As the public interference built up, financial regulators and law enforcement issued separate investigations into the matter. On July 9 (via Pinkvilla), the financial regulators officially stated that the Capital Market Investigation Deliberation Committee (CMIDC) has reviewed the case.
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has concluded that HYBE’s Chairman, Bang Si-hyuk, engaged in fraudulent and unfair trading in violation of the Capital Markets Act during HYBE’s IPO process.
In 2019, Bang misled existing investors by stating there were no plans for a… pic.twitter.com/uNburYbU4z
— luna ୨ৎ (@luenacore) July 4, 2025
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CMIDC Refers Case To Securities Commission, Potential Criminal Charges Loom
For those who don’t know, CMIDC works under the categories of the Financial Services Commission’s (FSC) Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). As CMIDC pushed the case to SFC, it means there’s some solid seriousness in the allegation against Bang’s name. SFC has scheduled a meeting on July 16. After the meeting, if SFC decides to take the committee’s side, then Bang Si-Hyuk might face the ultimatum of criminal charges for fraudulent and unjustified trading under Korea’s Capital Markets Act.
Law enforcement had previously issued search warrants twice, but the HYBE prosecutors rejected both times. Now, everything will be cleared up after this meeting on July 16 regarding whether Bang Si-Hyuk will be prosecuted for his crime or not.
As soon as the news broke out in the media, HYBE took immediate action and shared an official statement regarding the matter. While they expressed their regret over the constant attention that the IPO process has received, they even stated their concern about the damage it has caused the public. HYBE continued to explain that they are “actively cooperating with financial regulators and the police by providing detailed explanations and relevant materials related to the matter”. The agency further assured that they had followed all the legal requirements during their public listing back then and that it might take some time to clear the allegations.
Just after the BTS members were discharged from their military service and were planning their comeback soon, the agency’s chairman and founder got embroiled in such a controversy.
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