Coupang faced controversy that two executives sold shares right after a personal data leak, but it turned out the sales were effectively part of a pre-set plan and routine procedures tied to a resignation before the incident occurred.
According to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing on the 2nd (local time), Gaurav Anand, Coupang chief financial officer (CFO), sold 75,350 shares of Coupang Inc. at $29 per share on the 10th of last month. The total sale amount was about $2.19 million (about 3.2 billion won).
On the 17th of last month, former vice president Pranam Kolari, Coupang's former head of search and recommendations engineering, sold 27,388 shares. The total sale amount was about $772,000 (about 1.13 billion won).
Some argued that a key Coupang executive knew about the personal data leak and sold shares. But it was confirmed that the timing of their share sales had already been fixed before the incident occurred.
The filing said, "Anand's CFO share sale was conducted under SEC insider trading rules (Rule 10b5-1)." It is a system that automatically sells or buys shares according to a pre-set schedule and conditions to prevent insider trading.
Anand, the CFO, sold shares under a trading plan on Dec. 8 last year to meet a specific tax obligation. In effect, a sale plan was set a year earlier, and the automatic sale took place last month accordingly.
In Kolari's case, the filing said notice of resignation was given on Oct. 15. The final resignation date was the 14th of last month, but under SEC rules, sales of 5,000 shares or more require a "post-filing" even for a person who has left the company.