Shinsegae Group on the 26th announced the results of its own fact-finding investigation into Starbucks Korea's (hereafter Starbucks) "Tank Day" marketing controversy, saying that "serious defects were identified in the marketing verification and risk management framework."
Jeon Sang-jin, Shinsegae head of corporate strategy (vice president), said at a press conference that day, "The marketing at issue went through a total of four reporting steps. It was proposed by the e-commerce team and reported up to the CEO."
Shinsegae Group is said to have conducted a high-intensity fact-finding investigation across the entire approval line from the Starbucks Head of Team of e-commerce to the responsible Deputy Minister and the CEO, including phone and laptop forensics and hardware examinations. Vice President Jeon said, "The investigation found a fatal hole in the verification process, including some employees approving without even opening the file containing the marketing mock-up," and added, "Even the legal team's verification procedure that had been conducted in the past was omitted." He continued, "This goes beyond working-level negligence and reveals a lack of social and historical sensitivity within Starbucks."
Jeon also said, "Throughout this process, no one pointed out that 5·18 Tank Day was an inappropriate expression, and there was not a single objection during the planning and approval stages."
There was also mention of some employees' lack of cooperation with the investigation. Jeon said, "Due to issues such as the server retention period (one week) for internal messenger records, some matters could not be confirmed, and some employees refused to submit their phones, so there were limits to clearly establishing intent," but added, "If future police investigations find deliberate historical distortion or disparagement, we will hold those involved strictly accountable under civil and criminal law." Earlier, Shinsegae Group dismissed former CEO Son Jeong-hyun as soon as the controversy arose and placed all responsible officials, including the Deputy Minister in charge, on standby.
Jeon also bowed, saying, "We plan to actively cooperate with any future police investigations," and "We will take this incident as an opportunity to fundamentally reexamine the group's internal historical awareness and social sensitivity, and continue with painful reforms to be reborn as corporations trusted by the public."