SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission, has referred the chairman of K-pop agency HYBE to prosecutors for investigation of his activities during the company’s stock market listing, Yonhap News Agency reported on Wednesday.
The commission alleged that, ahead of the 2020 IPO, Bang Si-hyuk and three other executives “deceived” investors into selling their shares to an investment company they controlled and eventually profited from share sales after the listing, the Yonhap report said.
The Financial Services Commission did not answer telephone calls seeking comment.
HYBE said in a statement to Reuters that it regretted that the explanation by the “largest shareholder” – referring to Bang – to financial authorities that “he did not pursue personal gain on the premise of an IPO” was not accepted.
“While we respect the financial authorities’ decision, we will do our best to proactively clarify any related speculations in the upcoming investigation to restore the trust of the market as well as our stakeholders,” it said.
HYBE manages the global hit boy band BTS.
(Reporting by Jack KimEditing by Joe Bavier, Kirsten Donovan)
