South Korean Police Seek Arrest of BTS Agency Founder Bang Si-hyuk

Bang Si-hyuk, the founder and chairman of K-pop powerhouse Hybe — the agency home of supergroup BTS — is facing possible arrest after South Korean police moved Tuesday to secure a warrant for his detention in connection with an ongoing investigation into the company’s 2020 initial public offering.

According to reports across the Korean media, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s financial crimes investigation unit said it has booked Bang on charges of fraudulent and unfair trading and is moving to take him into custody. The agency alleges that he violated South Korea’s Capital Markets Act and secured roughly 190 billion won ($129 million) in illicit gains during Hybe’s IPO process.

At the heart of the case is a private equity arrangement that police allege was structured to mislead early Hybe investors. Seoul authorities have said Bang deceived early shareholders ahead of the agency’s listing by steering them to sell their stakes to a private equity fund linked to his associates — then received about 30 percent of the fund’s profits under a prior agreement after Hybe went public. Bang has previously denied any wrongdoing.

The move comes just a day after Seoul police commissioner Park Jung-bo said during a press briefing that the investigation into Bang was “essentially complete” and would be wrapped up soon. Bang has been barred from leaving South Korea since August of last year as the probe has progressed.

Hybe has not yet released a public response to Tuesday’s developments. The company’s shares fell as much as 2.9 percent in trading following news of the warrant request.

The probe dates to December 2024, when South Korea’s financial authorities began examining whether Bang had entered into undisclosed profit-sharing agreements ahead of Hybe’s IPO. Police raided Hybe’s Seoul headquarters in July 2025, and Bang voluntarily returned to South Korea the following month to cooperate. In December, the Seoul Southern District Court approved a provisional seizure of his Hybe shares worth 156.8 billion won (approximately $118 million).

The potential arrest represents an extraordinary moment for one of the most influential figures in the global music industry. Bang, 53, founded Big Hit Entertainment — Hybe’s predecessor — in 2005 after splitting from JYP Entertainment, where he had worked alongside founder Park Jin-young as one of the company’s first employees, earning the nickname “Hitman Bang” for his chart-topping prowess as a composer and producer. Big Hit had its ups and downs and even came close to bankruptcy in 2007 —before Bang reoriented the company around a promising new boy band he signed the following decade: BTS.

Following its debut in 2013, BTS went on to become the biggest pop act in the world, smashing barriers for East Asian entertainers and becoming the first Korean group to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The band is now in the early stages of a sold-out global comeback tour in support of Arirang, its first album in nearly four years.

BTS’s commercial success has transformed Big Hit into a global pop empire. The company went public on the Korea Exchange in October 2020 in what was then South Korea’s largest IPO in three years, and rebranded as Hybe in 2021. Under Bang, the company has acquired a sprawling roster of local labels. In 2021, it paid $1.05 billion to acquire Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings, picking up Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande’s management rights. It has since added Atlanta hip-hop label Quality Control and moved into Latin music.

Today, Hybe is easily the most dominant force in K-pop. According to some local estimates, Bang’s Hybe stake alone is worth as much as 4.8 trillion won ($3.6 billion), making him the only self-made billionaire in the Korean entertainment industry.