Why police are seeking to arrest billionaire K-pop mogul behind BTS

Bang, who was instrumental in taking the group global, said in a recent interview with Billboard that BTS had become like a "tourist attraction... widely recognised and embraced by the global public". Under South Korean law, those convicted of making 5bn won or more in illicit proceeds face between five years in jail and a life sentence.Who is Bang Si-hyuk?Bang's passion for music started at a young age. He was part of a band in middle school that performed songs he wrote, while a budding songwriting career began in his university years. In 1997, Bang co-founded JYP Entertainment with singer-songwriter Park Jin-young. Like Hybe, JYP is today one of the "big four" K-pop conglomerates. One of Bang's and Park's early successes was first-generation group g.o.d, which earned them a reputation as hit composers and gave Bang the nickname "Hitman Bang".In 2005, Bang left JYP to start his own venture, Big Hit Entertainment, known today as Hybe. He began creating a seven-member boy group in 2010, but it took a few years for BTS, as we know it today, to take shape.The group was initially conceived as a hip-hop crew, but Bang decided to adopt a "K-pop idol model" after considering "the business context", he told Time in an interview in 2019.In the years since their launch, BTS has gone on to become among the most successful pop groups in history, including being the first Korean act to top Billboard's Hot 100 and the first Asian group to surpass five billion streams on Spotify.Shares in Big Hit Entertainment debuted in October 2020 at $235 a piece, more than doubling the initial public offering price of $110. In 2019, Bloomberg put Bang's net worth at about $770m – this has since skyrocketed to more than $2bn. As of last month, Bang held more than 13 million Hybe shares, valued at nearly 5 trillion won, according to the Korea CXO Research Institute, a Seoul-based corporate analysis firm.Getty ImagesBang's company Hybe is also behind other major K-pop acts including Seventeen, Le Sserafim and KatseyeIllegal trading allegationsIn December 2024, South Korea's financial regulator launched an investigation into allegations that Bang entered into profit-sharing agreements with private equity funds ahead of Hybe's market debut, without proper public disclosure.Police allege that Bang had deceived existing investors and venture capital firms into thinking that there were no plans for a public listing, inducing them instead to sell their Hybe shares to a private equity fund he is alleged to have ties to.Bang is suspected of then getting a 30% cut of the illicit proceeds, amounting to 200 billion won, when the private equity fund sold its stake after Hybe went public.Hybe has denied wrongdoing, arguing that it had provided a copy of the agreement in question to the underwriters for its initial public offering who advised that disclosure was not necessary.Bang has also denied wrongdoing throughout the investigations.On Tuesday, his lawyers said they "regret" the police's request for an arrest warrant. "We will continue to co-operate with all legal procedures and make every effort to clearly explain our position," they said in a statement.Hybe shares fell 2.3% at the closing bell on Tuesday while the benchmark Kospi rose 2.7%. Stocks in the other big three K-pop conglomerates also fell.South Korea's crackdown on stock riggingStock manipulation is a persistent issue in South Korea, which authorities have recently vowed to crack down on. While those involved in illicit trading practices were previously subject to fairly lenient penalties like warnings and administrative fines, President Lee Jae Myung has called for harsher sanctions.In August, a new team comprising officials from the national financial regulators and the Korean stock exchange was set up to investigate illegal stock trading activities.