South Korean police referred Bang Si-hyuk and four associates to prosecutors on September 3, 2026, on charges of fraudulent unfair trading under the Capital Markets Act tied to alleged misleading statements to shareholders in 2019 ahead of HYBE’s 2020 listing. The referral followed a roughly 21-month investigation and included a court order preserving 263.1 billion won in alleged illicit gains, though Bang was not detained and prosecutors had twice rejected prior arrest warrant requests for insufficient grounds. Prosecutors must now decide whether to indict, request further investigation, or drop the matter, a step that has not yet occurred. Bang and HYBE maintain the listing complied with applicable rules. These procedural uncertainties and the absence of formal charges to date underpin the current trader consensus favoring no indictment in 2026.