![Bang Si-hyuk, chairman of Hive, arrives at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's financial crimes investigation unit in Mapo-gu, Seoul, last year to be questioned as a suspect over allegations that he deceived investors into selling their shares ahead of the company's initial public offering. [Yonhap]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/09/03/news-p.v1.20260518.b15a4e700def46e79a4b38dfb137307b_P2.jpg)
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Metropolitan Investigation Unit referred Hive Chairman Bang Si-hyuk to the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office on Thursday without seeking his detention.
Police allege that Bang, starting in April 2019 ahead of Hive's — then known as Big Hit — initial public offering, deceived existing shareholders by telling them the company had no plans to list, inducing them to sell their stakes to a private equity fund with ties to him. After Hive went public in October 2020, the fund sold the acquired shares for illicit profit.
Police opened a preliminary investigation in December 2024 and conducted a search and seizure at Hive's headquarters last July, among other investigative steps. Bang was summoned and questioned five times.
Four other individuals — including Hive executives and a private equity fund chief who took part in acquiring and selling the shares — were also referred to prosecutors. Together, they are alleged to have reaped 263.1 billion won ($192 million) in illicit gains from selling the shares after Hive's IPO. Police obtained a pre-indictment asset preservation order from a court covering those proceeds. A former Hive chief investment officer who left for the United States during the investigation and refused to cooperate has been the subject of an Interpol red notice request.
nyang@heraldcorp.com
