Police are seeking an arrest warrant for Bang Sihyuk, the founder and chairman of the multinational media conglomerate HYBE Corporation, and producer of K-pop boy group BTS. This comes as South Korean authorities continue to investigate allegations that Bang, also known as “Hitman” Bang, committed stock fraud and profited from illicit agreements with private equity funds ahead of HYBE’s initial public offering (IPO) in 2020.
Bang, who started his music career as a composer and producer, co-founded JYP Entertainment in 1997 with fellow producer Park Jinyoung, and made a name working with artists such as Rain, Wonder Girls, and 2AM. In 2005, he founded Big Hit Entertainment (now called HYBE), the label behind BTS. As the boy group rose to prominence in the late 2010s, Big Hit took on other ventures, such as the creation of the Korean social media platform Weverse and the acquisition of other labels such as Source Music and Pledis Entertainment. Following the 2020 IPO, Bang’s net worth went over $2 billion, according to CNN.
Bang has denied accusations that he entered profit-sharing agreements without public disclosure ahead of the IPO in October 2020. According to the BBC, authorities claimed that before the IPO, Bang had deceived existing investors into believing that HYBE did not have plans for a public listing, and instead convinced them to sell their shares to a private equity fund he allegedly had ties to.
He is said to have taken a 30 percent cut from the sales, earning him ₩200 billion ($136 million). In South Korea, earning ₩5 billion or more in illicit proceeds could land an individual in jail for five years up to a life sentence.
In December 2024, South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) began to investigate these allegations. In July 2025, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) referred Bang and three other company executives to prosecutors on suspicion of unfair trading, leading to a raid of the HYBE headquarters in South Korea.
In December 2025, the Seoul Southern District Court approved the police’s request to seize Bang’s shares in HYBE, which at the time were worth $118 million. The FSS special judicial police also raided Bang’s home and offices that month.
