Prosecutors raided the Seoul headquarters of HYBE — the K-pop agency behind such global acts as BTS and Seventeen — on Thursday amid allegations of insider trading involving a former executive. In a statement shared with Variety, the company confirms it is cooperating with local authorities as the investigation unfolds.
The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office is looking into allegations that an executive no longer with the company illegally earned profits of up to $176,500 dollars (240 million won) through stock trading using insider information, per The Korea Times.
“We cooperated with the authorities in response to their request for information concerning the conduct of a former employee,” said a spokesperson for HYBE Global.
The identity of the former employee remains concealed as officials investigate that person’s purchase of YG Plus (an affiliate of YG Entertainment) shares, a transaction said to have occured after the accused executive learned of HYBE’s plan to invest in the company.
Elsewhere, reports of unlawful conduct at the hands of HYBE’s Founder and Chairman, Bang Si-hyuk, surfaced in December on account of the executive being monitored by Korea’s Financial Services Supervisors. Though separate from the investigation that occured this morning, financial regulators in Korea are looking into claims Si-hyuk purposefully misguided investors ahead of the company’s first public offering in 2020.
In the last five years, the company has worked to expand internationally, with budding sectors in global markets including Latin America and the United States.
HYBE America declined Variety‘s request for comment.
