You know, usually when we sit down to talk about
billionaires in the music industry, we tend to
talk about the people in front of the camera.
Right. The performer. Yeah, the rock stars. Yeah.
The people with the microphones. But if you have
listened to pop music, I mean, really, any pop
music in the last 10 years, you have heard the
work of a man who prefers to stay in the studio.
Well, at least he used to. And yet his influence
is arguably bigger than any solo artist you could
name. I mean, he didn't just write hits. He practically
rewrote the entire playbook for how global pop
culture operates today. We are talking about
Bang Siuk, the founder of HYBE, the mastermind
behind BTS. The guy the world knows is Hitman
Bang. A man who literally built a cultural bridge
between Seoul and the rest of the world. And
it's a bridge so sturdy that millions of people
walk across it every single day. Exactly. But
we need to be really clear about this right off
the bat. We aren't doing this deep dive today
just to celebrate a discography. No, the timing
is it's crucial here. Right. End of the date.
It is February 25, 2026. And right now. This
absolute titan of the industry isn't standing
on a stage accepting a Grammy. He is standing
in the middle of a massive legal hurricane. One
that really threatens to tear down the very empire
he built. It's a huge, constantly developing
story. On one side, you have this narrative of
a creative genius, and on the other, you are
seeing headlines about police raids, seized shares,
and criminal referrals. It's intense. Very. It
is a classic rise and fall arc, but it's set
in this hyper -competitive world of K -pop and
high finance. So here is our mission for this
Deep Dives. We've got a stack of sources in front
of us. We're pulling from his biographical data,
discography. records and some very dense financial
news reports regarding a 2020 IPO investigation.
Lots of paperwork. So much paperwork. But we
need to figure out how an art student became
a billionaire mogul and why the South Korean
government is currently freezing his assets.
To understand the alleged crime, you really have
to understand the pressure he was under. And
to understand that pressure, you have to understand
the man himself. So let's start at the beginning.
The origin story. Because looking at his background,
he wasn't exactly bred for the corporate boardroom,
was he? Far from it. Bang Si -Hook was born in
1972 in Seoul, and he grew up in a musical home.
But, and this is the interesting part, his parents
actually discouraged a career in the industry.
Which is so common, right? Parents want stability.
Exactly. They wanted him to follow a much more
traditional, safe path. But Bang was stubborn.
He formed a band in middle school. He was...
writing songs, performing, doing the whole garage
band thing. But the real curve ball, and honestly,
this is the key to understanding everything that
he does later, is what happened when he got to
college. Because he went to Seoul National University,
SNU, which is the top university in Korea. I
naturally assumed he compromised with his parents
and studied economics or maybe law. Something
sensible. He did not. He didn't even study business
or music theory. He graduated from SNU with a
degree in aesthetics. Aesthetics. OK, hold on.
When I hear aesthetics, I think of interior design.
or making an Instagram feed look cohesive. I'm
guessing that's not what they teach at the most
prestigious university in the country. Not quite.
So in an academic context, aesthetics is a really
deep branch of philosophy. Okay. It's the study
of beauty, taste, and the philosophy of art itself.
It asks these very abstract questions like, how
do we perceive beauty? How does art communicate
complex emotion? How do symbols actually create
meaning for people? Wow. That is actually wildly
appropriate for K -pop. It's the missing link.
If you look at the K -pop industry today, you
know it isn't just about the song. It is never
just about the audio track. No, it's the music
videos, the outfits, the lore. Exactly. It's
the cohesive storytelling that spans album covers
and social media campaigns. That is literal aesthetics
in action. Bang wasn't just learning how to arrange
notes on a page. He was learning how to construct
a complete sensory experience. That totally explains
the whole BTS universe thing. Right. All those
high -concept storylines that fans spend... literally
years decoding. He was approaching a boy band
like a philosophy project. Precisely. He treats
the audience not just as passive listeners, but
as active participants in a shared meaning. But
of course, before he could build that universe,
he had to pay his dues. Right. He debuted as
a composer while he was still in college. He
actually won the UJHaw Music Contest in 1994.
which is a very respected competition. So he
had that artistic credibility early on. He wasn't
a corporate manufacturer. He was a genuine creator.
He was. But his real commercial breakthrough,
the moment he starts becoming a household name
in the industry, happens in 1997. That is when
he meets Park Jin Young. JYP, the legend himself.
The one and only. When Park founded JYP Entertainment,
Bang joined him as a composer and producer. They
became this incredibly prolific songwriting duo,
inseparable in the studio. And this, by the way,
is where his famous nickname comes from. Hitman.
I always thought that sounded, I don't know,
a bit aggressive, like a mobster and assassin.
It was purely descriptive. So in the early 2000s,
a group called G .O .D. became one of the absolute
best -selling boy bands in the country. Huge
group. Massive. And Bang arranged their most
famous songs, tracks like One Candle in Road,
because every single track he touched turned
the gold. The industry just started calling him
a hit maker. And the hitman tag just evolved
naturally from there. And looking at our notes
here, he was working with everyone at JYP, Rain,
the Wonder Girls, 2AM. He was instrumental in
building that whole era of music. He was incredibly
successful there, very comfortable. But then
in 2005, he decides to walk away. He leaves JYP
to found his own independent company, Big Hit
Entertainment. And this is the part of the story
where usually the visionary succeeds immediately.
But that didn't happen for him, did it? No, it
was a real struggle at first. But the history
books are always going to focus on one specific
discovery he made. He signed a kid, a 15 -year
-old underground rapper. Correct. RM, the future
leader of BTS, he signed him at 15. It really
speaks to Bang's eye for talent. Or maybe that
aesthetic judgment we talked about. He saw global
potential in this young teenager. What I find
so interesting in the discography records here
is that even as the CEO of his own company, Bang
didn't stop being a hands -on creative. Not at
all. He wasn't just sitting in a boardroom signing
checks. He's a creator at his core. Look at the
BTS album Wings from 2016. Bang actually co -wrote
six songs on that album. Which is widely considered
one of their absolute masterpieces. Exactly.
His involvement was incredibly deep, and the
industry rewarded that. That same year, 2016,
he won the Best Producer Award at the Mnet Asian
Music Awards and the Songwriter Award at the
Melon Music Awards. So fast forward just a couple
of years. BTS becomes the biggest musical act
on the planet. Bang is named an international
music leader by Variety in 2018. The success
is astronomical. This is where our story has
to shift gears. We move from the aesthetics phase
to the empire phase. Right, because you cannot
have a band that globally dominant without generating
an enormous amount of capital. And you can't
manage that kind of capital without becoming
a corporate mogul. And we are talking serious
wealth here. In April 2019, his net worth was
roughly $770 million, which is already staggering.
But the real wealth explosion happens the next
year, October 2020. The big hit IPO. Yes. It
was the largest ITO in South Korea in three years.
And overnight, Bang's net worth skyrocketed to
2 .8 billion dollars. 2 .8 billion. Making him
the only billionaire in the entire South Korean
entertainment industry. And he didn't just sit
on that cash. The sources show he diversified
the company massively. He did. He built tech
apps like Weverse. He acquired other labels like
Source Music and Pledis Entertainment. He rebranded
the whole company to HYBE Corporation. It's like
you transition from a record label executive
to a tech conglomerate CEO. And the world treated
him like for it. He was named in Variety 500
in 2020. He was on the cover of Time Magazine
in April 2022. And here's a detail I love circling
back to his education. In 2022, Seoul National
University gave him an honorary doctorate in
business. The very first entertainment figure
to receive one from SNU. It's like the ultimate
academic validation. The establishment saying,
OK, your philosophy degree worked out just fine.
He was very generous with his wealth, too. We
see a lot of philanthropy in the records. He
donated five billion one to the Community Chess
of Korea in twenty twenty two. He gave aid for
the Turkey, Syria earthquake victims in twenty
twenty three. Even as recently as March twenty
twenty five, he donated another five billion
one to SNU for a cultural center. So up until
extremely recently the narrative was flawless.
The art student becomes a visionary producer,
builds a global empire, becomes a billionaire,
and gives back to society. It was perfect right
up until the foundation started to crack. Let's
talk about the legal storm because again it's
early 2026 right now and the picture looks incredibly
different today. When did the cracks actually
start to shut up? It really started in December
2024. The Financial Supervisory Service, the
FSS, launched an investigation. And we need to
pay close attention to the details here, because
this is where the creative mindset directly clashed
with the strict reality of financial compliance.
What exactly is the core allegation? Because
financial reports can get so dense. The core
issue revolves around that massive 2020 IPO we
just discussed. The authorities allege that BANG
entered into profit sharing with private equity
funds ahead of the IPO, and he did it without
proper public disclosure. Okay, let's unpack
that for a second. Why is a profit -sharing agreement
a problem? If he's the founder, can he make private
deals to secure backing? Not when you are taking
a company public. In the stock market, transparency
is the ultimate rule. When public investors buy
shares during an IPO, they are making that decision
based on the financial disclosures provided by
the company. Right. They need to know all the
liabilities. Exactly. If the founder has secret
undisclosed agreements to share profits with
private equity firms, perhaps to ensure a high
valuation that changes the financial reality
of the company, the public is essentially buying
in blind to those obligations. It manipulates
the playing field. Yes. H -Y -B -E initially
denied wrongdoing. They stated that these agreements
were not actually mandatory for disclosure under
the regulations. They argued it was a technicality.
Right. But the regulators absolutely did not
buy that argument. Things escalated dramatically
in 2025. On July 16, 2025, the Financial Services
Commission formally referred Bang and three other
executives to prosecutors. On suspicion of unfair
trading. That is a massive escalation. That's
a criminal referral. And then came the visual
that shocked the entire industry. Just a week
later, on July 24, 2025, police raided the HYBE
headquarters in Seoul. I mean, just imagine that.
This building is a symbol of Korean soft power.
And you have police walking out with boxes of
documents and hard drives. It was unprecedented.
Bang actually voluntarily returned to South Korea
in August 2025 to cooperate with the investigation.
He sent out that company -wide message, right?
Yes. He apologized for the con... the situation
it caused and he specifically stated he was putting
aside urgent business to prioritize the investigation.
Putting aside urgent business that is essentially
saying I have to step away from the music and
the company to focus on keeping myself out of
jail. Well his legal team certainly has their
hands full because as of late 2025 the situation
got significantly worse for him. In December
2025, the Seoul Southern District Court approved
the provisional seizure of bank shares in HYBE.
They froze his talk. Yes. Shares worth approximately
156 .8 billion won. That's about 118 million
US dollars. Exactly. And that same month in December
2025, raids were carried out on his personal
home and offices. It is such a stark, jarring
contrast. You have this man who studied aesthetics,
a man who spent decades perfectly curating these
beautiful cohesive narratives for his artists.
And now his own narrative is completely out of
his control. That is the ultimate irony here.
The hit man is caught in the crosshairs of a
financial system he tried to navigate like a
creative project. And we should remind everyone
these are still allegations at this point. The
investigation is ongoing. But provisional seizures
of over 100 million dollars in raids on his home
that suggests the authorities are very confident
in their case. Absolutely. The stakes are incredibly
high. Which brings us to a really fascinating
point about his career trajectory. Remember,
in July 2021, Bang actually resigned as CEO of
the company. Right. He wanted to return his focus
to music production. He stepped back to be chairman
of the board. He wanted to get back to the art.
And he was very active recently. In 2024 and
2025, he has production credits for groups like
Alight. He worked on their song Magnetic. He's
got credits with Lesara Fim, TXT, and Hypen,
and the new global girl group Cat's Eye. He was
still in the studio making hits. But now his
shares are provisionally seized. He's fighting
a massive legal battle. You really have to wonder,
how is this going to impact the creative direction
of HYBE moving forward? That is the question
on every investor's mind. When the visionary
mastermind behind your entire roster is entangled
in a high stakes financial investigation regarding
the very IPO that built the empire, it creates
a massive vacuum. It really highlights the danger
of that transition from artistic creator to corporate
mogul. Navigating the strict regulations of the
financial market requires a totally different
mindset than writing a pop song. You can't just
rely on aesthetic intuition when the financial
supervisory service is auditing your term sheets.
No, you definitely cannot. It's a fascinating
duality. The creative genius who bridged Korea
and the world, currently fighting for his legacy
in a sole courthouse. It is a story that is far
from over. We will definitely be keeping a close
eye on this as it develops throughout 2026. This
legal battle is going to have ripple effects
across the entire global music industry. No doubt
about it. Well, that wraps up today's deep dive.
Thanks so much for listening, and we will catch
you on the next one.