Bang Si Hyuk, chairman of HYBE, has been warned by South Korea's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) for omitting subsidiaries in documents used to determine the company’s status as a large business group.
According to government sources on August 26, the FTC issued a warning in May over Bang’s false submission of documents. In April 2023, when submitting materials for the designation of a publicly disclosed business group, a conglomerate with assets exceeding 5 trillion KRW (about $37 billion), Bang omitted two companies: Shinwoo Architecture Office, run by his two cousins and specializing in architecture and landscaping design, and Tobinuri, a crop cultivation service company. HYBE was listed as a large business group for the first time last year.
The FTC stated that Bang’s action constituted submission of false documents without justifiable reason but judged that the violation was not severe, issuing only a warning.
Factors considered included the limited relevance of the omitted companies’ businesses to HYBE’s core operations and the lack of transactional relationships between HYBE and the two firms. The omission did not affect HYBE’s designation as a large business group in 2023. Both companies are currently excluded from HYBE’s group of affiliates.
Bang is also under investigation for allegations of fraudulent transactions during HYBE’s listing process.
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