According to Korean media, HYBE CEO Bang Si Hyuk was accused of deceiving current shareholders in 2019 by lying about HYBE's intention to list shares.
He then convinced shareholders to sell their shares to his own private equity fund management company in 2020. At that time, Bang Si Hyuk signed a contract with a private equity fund company to ensure him 30% of the total profit earned through HYBE's public listing. The payment from the private equity fund contract then brought Bang Si Hyuk 400 billion won (about $300 million).
According to the Financial Supervisory Authority, Bang Si Hyuk may have conducted illegal insider transactions by defrauding current shareholders. This agency is currently reviewing the case before transferring it to the prosecutor's office for official investigation.
The above information has aroused interest from BTS fans, artists who are primarily responsible for HYBE's huge growth. Many questions are raised about how many HYBE shares do BTS members own?
According to Korean media, Bang Si Hyuk has given each of the 7 members of BTS about 68,000 shares (a total of 480,000 shares) before HYBE publicly listed them in 2020. At that time, these stocks of BTS members were worth about 64.6 billion won (equivalent to 9.2 billion won - or 6.7 million USD per person). In 2021, members Jin, J-Hope, and RM sold a portion of their shares, earning 4.8 billion won, 1.8 billion won, and 3.1 billion won, respectively.
It is not yet clear whether other BTS members will continue to own their allocated shares in HYBE. The status of members has been changed from public shareholders to private shareholders after September 2023.
If BTS members still own the shares allocated as above, then according to last year's stock price, each member will earn a profit of 15 billion won (equivalent to 11 million USD) from the shares given to them by Bang Si Hyuk. But this figure is significantly lower than the profits that Bang Si Hyuk (400 billion won) and other key figures related to Bang Si Hyuk earned.
