Big news in K-pop business: HYBE’s founder and chairman, Bang Si-hyuk, was grilled by financial crime investigators for almost 14 hours. He showed up in the morning and didn’t step out of questioning until around midnight. The clocked time? Thirteen hours and forty-eight minutes of intense questioning under the Capital Markets Act.
Here’s how it unfolded: Investigators suspect that before HYBE’s IPO, Bang told early investors the company didn’t plan to go public. Based on that, those investors were urged to sell their shares, which allegedly went to a private equity group that was secretly set up. When the IPO finally launched, those shares were sold for profits, and rightly or wrongly, authorities think Bang gained a big chunk of it — about 190 billion won (that’s around US$140 million), including a roughly 30% profit share.
He walked into the police building early, gave a brief apology for causing concern, and promised to cooperate—but kept silent when asked whether he did mislead investors or benefited personally. After questioning, he exited with two security guards into a waiting black car without saying more.
This investigation isn’t coming out of nowhere — investigators have already raided HYBE’s offices and the Korea Exchange earlier, and the Financial Supervisory Service referred Bang and several others to prosecutors over these trading allegations.
For now, Bang stands silent on key questions, but says he’ll explain everything fully once the investigation wraps up. The saga continues.
