In a YouTube video posted in June 2022, the seven members of BTS told fans they were taking a break from the supergroup to focus on their solo careers, citing exhaustion and the pressures of their stratospheric success.
The company’s share price fell nearly 25 per cent when the market opened the day after the announcement, wiping nearly 2 trillion won off its value. Three Hybe employees, whose identities have been withheld, had prior knowledge of the announcement and sold their shares before it was made public, pocketing hundreds of millions of won illegally, South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service said in a statement on Wednesday .
“We referred the three officials, one of whom is a team leader, to the prosecution with the opinion that they should be indicted,” the watchdog said. The watchdog also criticised Hybe for making the market-moving announcement in a YouTube video rather than an official statement or regulatory filing, which they said had “aggravated investors’ confusion”.