Jin Hit News in English

  As fans know, HYBE Chairman Bang Sihyuk has been facing legal allegations related to illicit gains stemming from the listing of his K-pop empire earlier this year. Police accused Bang of deliberately concealing or mispresenting information in order to personally profit 190 billion won IPO (approximately $131 million) through a fraudulent deal with a private equity fund before the IPO.  If the allegations are proven true, his actions could constitute securities fraud or investment fraud under South Korean law, which could carry a prison sentence ranging from five years to life imprisonment. For a period of time, Bang PD had almost disappeared from the public eye and rarely appeared at HYBE-related events. However, recently, fans have started spotting him more frequently at places associated with the company’s artists, including BTS’s concert in Goyang in April, CORTIS’s birthday pop-up, and the group’s concerts. These appearances quickly caught the attention of the fan commun...

 V of BTS has had his brand power highlighted by a Japanese business magazine. As numerous cases have emerged in which his work as a global ambassador has directly influenced product sales and brand awareness, anaysts are suggesting that V himself functions as a brand. The Japanese comprehensive business weekly Weekly Toyo Keizai analyzed HYBE's business structure, artist deveopment strategy, fan platform Weverse, and its expansion into the Japanese and U.S. markets in its August 15-22 issue under the theme "The Ambitions of Entertainment Empire HYBE." In particular, a separate article titled "Exclusive Coverage! 'Oshikatsu' (Supporting Your Favorite): BTS V Sells" focused extensively on V's influence as a brand. The publication evaluated HYBE as having established a structure in which artists are not treated simply as entertainers but are analyzed as data connected to fans' consumption behavior, which is then leveraged across various businesses....

Charged with violations of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, the Information and Communications Network Act, and other offenses The leader of hacking organization who was indicted for allegedly stealing approximately ₩39 billion (US$26 million) by impersonating BTS member Jungkook and the chairmen of major corporations has been sentenced to a lengthy prison term at his first trial. On August 20, the Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Division 31, presided over by Chief Judge Park Jun-seok, sentenced A, a Chinese national, to 20 years in prison for fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes, violations of the Information and Communications Network Act, and other charges. The court stated, "A sought out wealthy individuals in South Korea as targets and stole their assets." It pointed out that, unlike victims of typical voice-phising scams,"the victims in this case had their assets stolen while compl...

  The Korea CXO Research Institute published a report titled "Status of Individual Equity Valuations in the Cultural and Content Sector," revealing that a total of 27 individuals currently hold stock assets worth more than 10 billion KRW (approx. US$7.062.996) each. The combined stock value of these 27 individuals increased from 5.9994 trillion KRW (approx. US$4.237.076.250) during the first three months of the year, marking an increase of approximately 127.6 billion KRW (approx. US$90.117.500), or 2.1% Among them, Bang Si-hyuk holds the undisputed top spot, with stock assets valued at approximately 4.8 trillion KRW (approx. US$3.390.000.000). He currently holds 13,151,394 shares of HYBE, accounting for 78.3% of the total stock valuation represented in this list. Thanks to recent gains in HYBE's stock price, his wealth increased by approximately 249.8 billion KRW (approx. US$176.402.540), or 5.5%, compared with the beginning of the year. The second position belongs to Par...

  At the end of last month, BTS's decision to withdraw from the Grammys sent shockwaves through the global media, accompanied by a firm message: "Music can be heard and loved as music itself, rather than being divided by region or language." The boycott immediately reignited a controversy that had already been simmering, placing the Grammys at the center of criticism over allegations that the "Asian Pop" category was being used to isolate and discriminate against Asian artist. The Recording Academy began associating BTS with the concept of "Asian Pop Music" during the early planning stages of the new category. What they did not expect was or BTS to openly boycott it, ultimately throwing their entire plan into disarray. Ironically they seemed to have little choice but to resort to retaliatory measures, such as removing BTS videos from the GRAMMY homepage or issuing statements that fans described as hollow and entirely unconvincing. Finally, after more t...

Information about the first comeback album following the members' military discharge was leaked in advance...  BigHit requests the user's identity through a U.S. court. After X relocated its headquarters, the company refiled the case in a Texas court. "The user must be notified firs." BigHit Music, an agency under HYBE, recently won approval from a U.S. court for its discovery seeking to indentify the individual responsible for leaking BTS's full-length album, ARIRANG. While K-pop artists have increasingly turned to U.S. courts to uncover the identities of so-called "cyber wreckers" and anonymous social media users overseas, this is the first publickly known case in which such a request has been granted by a Texas court rather than a California court. According to an investigation by Sisa Journal on August 14, the U.S. District Court for the Western District to Texas granted BigHit's discovery request against X (formerly Twitter) on August 5. As a re...