Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
After being investigated for what seemed like forever over allegations of fraudulent and unfair trading, it’s been reported that police are seeking an arrest warrant for HYBE chairman Bang Si Hyuk.
Chairman Bang Si Hyuk is suspected of deceiving investors by claiming that there were no plans for an IPO before HYBE went public in 2019, thereby inducing a specific private equity fund (PEF) to sell its stake in HYBE, only to proceed with the listing shortly thereafter.
Police believe that, under a private agreement made in advance with the private equity fund, Bang Si Hyuk received 30 percent of the profits from the sale of shares after the IPO, resulting in nearly 200 billion won (approximately $13,585,000) in illicit gains.
Bang Si Hyuk maintains that he did not deceive the initial investors, asserting that the sale was carried out at the request of the investors themselves and that the profit-sharing terms were conditions first proposed by the investors.
There’s nothing we didn’t already know in this, but obviously it’s a significant turn of events given how long the investigation had been going on.
While most cynical people (including me) were skeptical that this would go anywhere given how conglomerates usually get away with stuff, one reason it might be different here is the incoming administration made it a point that they were going to try and crack down on these types of financial crimes.
Updates to come.
