Rabat – On Wednesday, converging media outlets reported that chairman Bang Si Hyuk was subject to a travel ban initiated by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Financial Crimes Investigation after their ongoing investigation on his alleged violation of the Capital Markets Act.
The Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act (FSCMA) enacted the Capital Markets Act in 2007, aiming primarily to protect investors and promote market transparency. Bang Si Hyuk was accused of violating the act after he supposedly told investors of HYBE that the company had no intention of transitioning from private to public ownership.
HYBE Entertainment listed its shares on South Korea’s main stock exchange platform KOSPI, and the IPO became known as the largest stock exchange of the country at the time. The IPO was controversial as the shareholders supposedly were not informed of it. Some shareholders claimed that they were encouraged right before the IPO to sell their shares to a company. Bang Si Hyuk made a profit of a conceivable amount ranging from ~140 Billion KRW to 200 Billion KRW.
Before becoming the chairman of HYBE, Bang Si Hyuk was mostly known as the CEO of BigHit Entertainment and the father figure of BTS. Following the IPO scandal, a significant portion of BTS’s fanbase expressed their disappointment in who they considered the mentor of the seven members. From being mostly known by his nickname “Hitman BANG”, Bang Si Hyuk is now known as a deceiver and “shady’ figure.
