Police raid the headquarters following fraud allegations against BANG SI HYUK.
The police have launched a raid on HYBE’s headquarters as part of an investigation into allegations of fraud and illegal transactions involving HYBE Chairman BANG SI HYUK.
On July 24, the Financial Crimes Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police sent investigators to HYBE’s headquarters, located in Yongsan, Seoul, to carry out a search and seizure.
Chairman BANG SI HYUK is suspected of deliberately deceiving investors in 2019 by claiming that the company had no plans to go public (IPO), leading them to sell their shares. Shortly after, HYBE did go public, and BANG SI HYUK reportedly made profits worth hundreds of billions of won (hundreds of millions of euros).
He is also accused of arranging for existing investors to sell their shares to a special purpose company (SPC) established by a private equity fund.
Among the three executives officially registered with that private equity fund at the time of its creation, two were former HYBE employees, both reportedly close associates of BANG SI HYUK.
Earlier, on July 17, the police had applied for a search and seizure warrant targeting HYBE’s headquarters in Yongsan.
However, a jurisdictional dispute emerged when, on July 21, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office, which had received the case from the financial authorities, took over the investigation through the Special Judicial Police of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
Journalist: Shawn
Translator: Shawn
Source: Korean media
