South Korean prosecutors deny police request for arrest warrant for BTS pop mogul

>The 53-year-old is being investigated over allegations that he misled investors in 2019 by indicating that Hybe had no immediate plans to go public, prompting them to sell their shares to a private equity fund, shortly before the company proceeded with an initial public offering. That old chestnut: "No guys, this isn't special. It's probably best to cut all our losses." < 10 Minutes Later > "I'm rich!"

He’s caught in the crossfire of a pissing match between the police and the prosecutor’s office. The police have pulled him in for extensive questioning three (four?) times, but have not produced any clear evidence that he did something illegal. Prosecutor’s office doesn’t want to give the police any credit for coming up with a case; they’d rather have their investigators come up with key evidence (and in the past have not been above taking evidence gathered by the police and claiming that their investigators found it). Beyond that, there’s a nice side order of societal classism. BSH is not from one of the traditionally wealthy chaebol families, whose problems have been covered up by both the police and the prosecutor’s office in the past. As I understand it, some of the investors who lost out in the Hybe IPO are from those families so there’s a strong suspicion that the police are going after him because one of them is throwing a snit. My $0.02 is that his actions may have violated the law, but proving so beyond a reasonable doubt for a criminal charge would be very hard since it’s on the fuzzy edge. A civil case would be difficult to prove as well, since the investors made money, just not as much as they could have. These are sophisticated investors who can’t easily claim ignorance of how IPOs work. Look up Hybe Boy on YouTube for a much deeper dive into this whole mess.