South Korean police are taking a cautious stance on whether to re-file an arrest warrant for HYBE Chairman Bang Si-hyuk, who is accused of pocketing hundreds of billions of won in illicit gains by misleading investors ahead of the company’s IPO.
At a regular press briefing held Monday (April 27) at the National Police Agency headquarters in Seoul’s Seodaemun district, an NPA official said: “The prosecution has requested supplementary investigation, and we are diligently reviewing those points. It is difficult to predict at this stage whether we will re-file the warrant.”
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The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Financial Crime Investigation Unit had filed a warrant request on April 21 on suspicion of fraudulent unfair trading under the Capital Markets Act. On April 24, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office’s Financial and Securities Crimes Joint Investigation Division returned the request, demanding supplementary investigation. Prosecutors said they had judged “the justification for detention at this stage to be insufficient.”
Bang is alleged to have told existing investors in 2019, when HYBE was still operating as Big Hit Entertainment, that the company had no plans to go public, inducing them to sell their stakes to a special purpose vehicle established by a private equity fund linked to HYBE executives. Police investigation, however, found that HYBE had already been advancing its listing process at the time, including filing for designated auditor review, a mandatory step in the IPO pipeline. Investigators believe Bang entered into an undisclosed shareholder agreement with the private equity fund to share 30% of the post-listing sale proceeds, ultimately securing approximately 190 billion won ($129 million) in illicit gains.
Bang’s side has denied all allegations, maintaining that the IPO was not yet finalized at the time, that the share sale was conducted at the investors’ own request, and that the profit-sharing structure was proposed by the fund itself.
The investigation has run for more than 16 months. Police identified the case through internal intelligence in late 2024, raided the Korea Exchange in June 2025 to obtain HYBE trading and listing review records, raided HYBE’s Yongsan headquarters the following month, and imposed the travel ban on Bang in August. He was questioned five times between September and November 2025. In their warrant application, police reportedly cited concerns of evidence destruction, including Bang’s replacement of his mobile phone.
Diplomatic considerations have also entered the case. Korea’s National Police Agency confirmed that the U.S. Embassy in Seoul had sent a letter requesting that the travel ban on Bang be lifted. “We have received the letter,” the police official said, but added: “As this is an active investigation entangled with diplomatic relations, we cannot provide specific details on what action will be taken.”
The warrant rejection-and-resubmission cycle could prolong the investigation. Under Korean criminal procedure, if prosecutors continue to demand supplementary investigation, police may petition the high prosecutors’ office’s warrant review committee for review, though such petitions rarely result in warrant issuance, according to local reports.
The case is playing out against the backdrop of HYBE’s most commercially significant moment in recent years. BTS, the agency’s flagship act, opened its ARIRANG world tour earlier this month, with the U.S. leg currently underway in Tampa. Bang has been barred from leaving South Korea since August 2025.
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