{"id":143747,"date":"2026-09-04T23:15:48","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T23:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/143747\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T23:15:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T23:15:48","slug":"south-korean-police-seek-indictment-of-k-pop-mogul-behind-bts-wsb-tv-channel-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/143747\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korean police seek indictment of K-pop mogul behind BTS \u2013 WSB-TV Channel 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEOUL, South Korea \u2014 South Korean police are pushing for an indictment of music tycoon Bang Si-Hyuk,<\/a> the chairperson of the agency behind K-pop supergroup BTS,<\/a> over alleged investor fraud.<\/p>\n

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency referred Bang to the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors\u2019 Office on Thursday, asking him to be indicted on a charge of violating the capital markets act, according to the police agency and the prosecutor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Police have been investigating Bang, the billionaire founder and chairperson of Hybe<\/a>, over allegations that he misled investors in 2019 by indicating that Hybe had no immediate plans to go public, prompting them to sell their shares to a private equity fund shortly before the company proceeded with an initial public offering.<\/p>\n

Police earlier said that the fund may have paid Bang somewhere around 200 billion won ($147 million) in a side deal that promised him 30% of post-IPO stock sale profits.<\/p>\n

South Korean media reported that police referred four other people, including Hybe executives and private equity fund officials, to prosecutors on Thursday as well, asking for their indictment.<\/p>\n

Hybe officials have said Bang denies any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have consistently responded to the allegations with objective evidence and facts,” Bang’s legal team said in a statement Thursday. “We expect the allegations to be fully and transparently resolved through the legal process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police earlier sought Bang’s arrest twice in April and May. But prosecutors rejected<\/a> those requests, saying police failed to provide sufficient grounds for his arrest and failed to comply with prosecutors’ demand for further investigation of Bang.<\/p>\n

Observers say prosecutors could again ask for further police investigation, rather than indicting Bang immediately.<\/p>\n

News of Bang’s legal troubles flared after BTS returned<\/a> and launched a much-awaited world tour earlier this year after a nearly four-year musical hiatus due to the band members’ mandatory military service in South Korea.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEOUL, South Korea \u2014 South Korean police are pushing for an indictment of music tycoon Bang Si-Hyuk, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[73033,2190,94,7674,195,6333,76],"class_list":["post-143747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-bts-kpop-hybe-bang-indict-fraud","tag-entertainment","tag-general-news","tag-indictments","tag-k-pop","tag-law-enforcement","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}