SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean prosecutors on Friday rejected a police request for an arrest warrant for music tycoon Bang Si-Hyuk, chairman of the agency behind K-pop supergroup BTS, questioning whether detention is necessary as he faces a high-profile investigation into alleged investor fraud.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency asked prosecutors earlier this week to request a court warrant to arrest Bang, the billionaire founder and chairman of Hybe. The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office said that it found that the request lacked sufficient grounds to justify his detention and instructed police investigators to strengthen their case.
Bang, who has been barred from leaving the country since August, isn't seen as a realistic threat to flee.
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.
Police believe that the fund may have paid Bang somewhere around 200 billion won ($135 million) in a side deal that promised him 30% of post-IPO stock sale profits.
Bang denies any wrongdoing, Hybe officials say. Bang’s legal team had criticized police for seeking his arrest, saying that he has been fully cooperating with the investigation for months.
Bang’s legal troubles are a public relations setback for Hybe, coming as BTS launches a global tour after a nearly four-year hiatus as its seven members served their mandatory military service.
BTS performed in front of tens of thousands of international fans at a free comeback concert in Seoul last month and have also held concerts in South Korea’s Goyang city and Tokyo. The group will kick off a series of U.S. events with a concert in Tampa, Florida, over the weekend.
Bang Si-Hyuk, a chairman of Hybe answers reporters' question upon his arrival at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (Kim Keun-soo/Newsis via AP)
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Judges at the International Criminal Court on Thursday confirmed charges of crimes against humanity against former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for deadly anti-drug crackdowns he allegedly oversaw while in office.
A three-judge panel found unanimously there were “substantial grounds” to believe the ex-leader was responsible for dozens of murders, first as mayor of the southern Philippine city of Davao and later when he was president.
Duterte, who served as president from 2016 to 2022, was arrested in the Philippines last year and flown to The Hague, where the global court is located. He denies the charges against him.
In their 50-page decision, judges found that the evidence shows that Duterte, 81, “developed, disseminated and implemented” a policy “to ‘neutralize’ alleged criminals.”
According to prosecutors, police and hit squad members carried out dozens of murders at Duterte’s behest starting in 2011, motivated by the promise of money or to avoid becoming targets themselves.
“For some, killing reached the level of a perverse form of competition,” deputy prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang told the court in pretrial hearings in February.
Estimates of the death toll during Duterte’s presidential term vary, from the more than 6,000 that the national police have reported to up to 30,000 claimed by human rights groups.
Prosecutors said in a statement on Wednesday that the decision “represents a significant milestone” in their effort to bring accountability.
Duterte's lead defense lawyer Nick Kaufman told The Associated Press he was disappointed in the decision, saying it “is based on the uncorroborated statements of vicious self-confessed murderers acting as cooperating witnesses.”
A date for the start of the trial has not yet been set.
Duterte has not been present in the courtroom for any hearings, having waived his right to appear. Last month judges found he was fit to stand trial, after postponing an earlier hearing over concerns about his health.
In the Philippines, families of slain victims in the brutal anti-drugs crackdown rejoiced over the decision, saying it will bring them closer to justice and toward a closure of a tragic chapter in their lives.
“This is for all the victims, who were not even given the chance to be recognized as victims because their stories were twisted in police reports, investigations and findings,” said Randy delos Santos, whose nephew, Kian delos Santos, was gunned down in an alley in August 2017 by three police officers.
“Unlike Kian, most other victims were nameless, voiceless and were just numbers and statistics whose horrific stories were never heard. Now the ICC will give their stories a chance to be told,” delos Santos told the AP.
Human rights groups also praised the decision.
“Duterte’s trial will send a powerful message that no one responsible for grave crimes is above the law, whether in the Philippines or elsewhere, and that justice will eventually catch up with them,” said Maria Elena Vignoli, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch.
ICC prosecutors said in 2018 that they would open a preliminary investigation into the violent drug crackdowns. In a move that human rights activists say was aimed at avoiding accountability, Duterte, who was president at the time, announced a month later that the Philippines would leave the court.
On Tuesday, appeals judges rejected a request from Duterte’s legal team to throw out the case on the grounds that the court did not have jurisdiction because of the Philippine withdrawal.
In October, judges disqualified the court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan from the case, citing a “reasonable appearance of bias” because he represented victims of Duterte’s alleged crimes before he took office at the ICC. Khan had already stepped back from his duties pending the outcome of an independent investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.
Associated Press journalist Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines contributed to this report.
FILE - In this Oct. 26, 2016 file photo, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte delivers a speech at the Philippine Economic Forum in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
