Supreme Council member Lee Un-ju of the Democratic Party of Korea on the 4th squarely criticized Kim Beom-suk, chair of the Coupang Inc. board, saying the company "continues to draw public fury with its irresponsible attempt to downplay and cover up the incident and the management's serious moral hazard" over the massive leak of customer information at Coupang.
At a Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly that day, the Supreme Council member said, "While making money in Korea, Coupang hid behind its U.S. entity and turned a blind eye to corporations' social responsibility and management accountability. This time, it must be properly investigated in both Korea and the United States and fully bear the legal and moral responsibility it has evaded."
The Supreme Council member said, "Coupang is a corporation that earns most of its revenue in Korea and grew on the back of domestic consumers," adding, "Its revenue topped 40 trillion won last year, and this year's revenue is expected to break a record 50 trillion won, giving it a dominant position in the domestic e-commerce market," while saying, "(But) with the intent of skirting rules, it split the company and listed only the parent company in the United States, thoroughly shunning domestic management responsibility and social responsibility."
She went on to say, "All this time, Coupang has been dogged by problems such as courier and logistics center labor issues, allegations of pressure on investigations related to unpaid severance for fulfillment service workers, and disputes over marketplace commission fees, but instead of presenting remedies, it has stuck to the excuse of an 'American law-based management system' and focused solely on bulking up its outward size."
In particular, she pointed to the conduct of Chair Kim Beom-suk, the founder. The Supreme Council member said, "Even though Kim's control based on voting rights reaches 75%, citing his U.S. citizenship, he has evaded designation as the same person (owner) by the Fair Trade Commission and has not responded even once to policy hearings at the National Assembly or requests to appear before the Assembly, and even after this incident he has kept out of sight and remained silent." She continued, "Even in the recent tariff negotiations, Coupang exerted direct and indirect pressure on the government and the National Assembly. Until now, the Assembly has been quite cooperative on these tariff negotiation issues, but we can no longer look the other way."
The Supreme Council member also said, "The ploy by Chair Kim, a so-called 'black-haired foreigner' with U.S. citizenship, to use the U.S. entity as a shield to dodge responsibility will backfire, forcing greater responsibility under U.S. law."
She also noted that right before this personal information leak, there were indications that Coupang's key current and former executives sold large amounts of shares they held and converted tens of billions of won into cash, calling it a serious problem. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) strictly prohibits trading using material nonpublic information under Rule 10b-5. The Supreme Council member said, "If Coupang executives knew about the incident, concealed it, and disposed of shares, and if investors suffered losses as a result, this would be a serious fraudulent crime subject to criminal punishment in the United States, and a major matter that could trigger a class action for violations of securities law."
The Supreme Council member also cited the SEC's 8-K Item 1.5 rule that "a listed company must disclose a material event within four business days," saying, "A massive customer information leak is obviously subject to disclosure. Coupang appears to have violated its disclosure obligation."