HYBE chairman Bang Si Hyuk, currently embroiled in stock market fraud allegations, has canceled a scheduled keynote lecture.
According to the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) official website, HYBE CEO Lee Jae Sang will appear as a speaker at the 2025 FKI Summer Forum for Business Leaders in Jeju, which begins July 16 KST.
Bang was originally scheduled to deliver a keynote speech titled “Beyond the BTS Phenomenon: The Future of K-pop”, but has been replaced by CEO Lee. This has sparked speculation that Bang may have withdrawn due to pressure related to his ongoing legal troubles.
Recently, the Capital Markets Investigation Committee, a subcommittee under the Financial Services Commission, decided to recommend Bang’s criminal referral to the prosecution on charges related to stock fraud.
Bang is accused of misleading investors during HYBE’s pre-IPO phase by falsely stating that the company had no listing plans, which allegedly led investors to sell their shares to a private equity fund. He is said to have gained roughly 200 billion KRW (approximately $145 million USD) in profit from this deal. The fund in question was reportedly established by HYBE executives, and Bang had signed a contract to receive 30% of the capital gains from the listing.
At the same time investors were selling their HYBE shares to the private fund, HYBE was quietly initiating essential procedures for going public—specifically applying for an external auditor, a mandatory step for IPO filing.
In response, HYBE issued a statement on July 9, denying wrongdoing: “Although it may take some time, we will thoroughly clarify that the listing process complied with legal and regulatory procedures.”
SEE ALSO: South Korea’s SFC refers HYBE’s Bang Si Hyuk to prosecutors for suspected market manipulation
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