Police have sent Chairperson Bang Si-hyuk, who faces allegations of "fraudulent unfair trading," to prosecutors. It comes about 21 months after police began a pre-booking inquiry (preliminary investigation).
The Financial Crimes Investigation Division of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Special Investigation Unit sent Bang, who faces allegations of fraudulent unfair trading under the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act, to the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office on the 3rd without detention. Four others facing the same allegations — a person surnamed Lee, CEO of HYBE, a person surnamed Kwon, former chief financial officer (CFO), a person surnamed Yang, CEO of Eastone PE, and a person surnamed Kim, CEO of New Main Equity — were also sent to prosecutors.
Regarding a person surnamed Kim, former chief investment officer (CIO), who left the country while police were currently investigating, police obtained an arrest warrant and requested a wanted notice and an Interpol red notice.
Bang and others are accused of, in 2019 before HYBE's listing, providing information to existing investors and venture capital (VC) firms indicating there were no plans to list, then inducing them to transfer equity to a private equity fund (PEF) established by an acquaintance.
Police judged that Bang and others obtained 263.1 billion won in unfair gains through the crime, applied for pre-indictment preservation for forfeiture, and received a court decision to preserve the entire amount. Pre-indictment preservation for forfeiture is a measure that freezes assets obtained through a crime so the person facing charges cannot hide or sell them before standing trial.
A police official said, "HYBE management and private equity officials, under the shared goal of obtaining listing gains, concealed listing information monopolized by management from existing shareholders to reap private benefits."
Police nevertheless sent the case without further attempting to secure Bang's custody. Police sought an arrest warrant twice, in April and May this year, but prosecutors rejected the requests, saying the need for detention was not sufficiently substantiated and that police had not fulfilled requests for supplementary investigation.
Bang's defense team said, "We have consistently substantiated the issues raised with objective materials and grounds," and added, "We expect that the allegations can be transparently resolved through the subsequent procedures."