According to Allkpop, on August 6, HYBE President Bang Si Hyuk sent an apology email to all HYBE employees.
Bang Si Hyuk wrote: With a series of events that happened last year, and now my personal story, both my company and my name have been mentioned in negative articles. I can imagine the confusion, loss and anxiety that many of you - who are extremely proud to be a part of HYBE - are going through.
As the founder and chairman, I feel deeply responsible and sincerely apologize to all members for the inconvenience and concern caused by this situation.
HYBE's president said that although he is busy with overseas work due to music projects and business expansion, he will soon return to Korea to cooperate fully with the investigation of the authorities.
Bang Si Hyuk, founder of HYBE Group, is being investigated for allegedly defrauding investors by claiming that he had no plans to publicly list public stocks (IPO) in 2019, causing them to sell their shares to a private investment fund established by a familiar person of Bang Si Hyuk. Meanwhile, HYBE is still speeding up procedures to conduct IPO.
These actions are suspected of violating the Capital Market Law, related to fraudulent and unfair trading activities.
Financial institutions reported that Bang Si Hyuk illegally profited 190 billion won, including 30% of the proceeds from selling shares of private investment funds.
The Securities and Exchange Commission under the Korean Financial Services Commission transferred Bang Si Hyuk's case to the prosecution on July 17.
The Seoul Capital Police Department's Financial Crime Investigation Agency has requested a one-month comprehensive search warrant for HYBE's headquarters, effective until August 16, to serve the investigation into Bang Si Hyuk's allegations.
The scope of the search is described as unusually wide, not only including the presidential office, secretariat, finance department, accounting department and legal department, but also any other department that cannot be named, where related documents can be stored.
Meanwhile, the Seoul Tax Department also opened a tax investigation into HYBE on July 29. The management company of famous music groups such as BTS, Seventeen, TXT, NewJeans, ILLIT is suspected of tax evasion through unfair trading activities, disrupting the stock market.
