Will Police Interrogate Coupang's Interim CEO Again Over Perjury Claims?
Synopsis
Key Takeaways
Seoul, Feb 6 (NationPress) The interim chief executive of Coupang, Harold Rogers, is scheduled for another round of police questioning on Friday concerning perjury allegations linked to his testimony before lawmakers last year, marking his second meeting with investigators within a week.
Authorities are interested in questioning Rogers about claims that he provided false testimony under oath regarding Coupang's internal investigation into a significant data breach during a two-day parliamentary hearing held in late December, as reported by Yonhap news agency.
During the hearing, Rogers stated that Coupang had conducted its own inquiry involving a Chinese national thought to be connected to the breach and had seized his laptop following directives from the National Intelligence Service.
However, the intelligence agency has refuted this assertion, leading a parliamentary committee to lodge a complaint that prompted an investigation into Rogers and six other current and former Coupang executives for potential perjury.
Previously, Rogers faced a 12-hour interrogation session last Friday regarding allegations of obstruction of justice linked to the data leak that has impacted over 33 million customers in South Korea.
After ignoring two previous police summons and departing South Korea in early January, he returned to Seoul just days before this initial interrogation.
In the meantime, Coupang announced on Thursday that it had identified a data leak involving personal information from over 165,000 customer accounts, related to an incident first detected in November.
The compromised data encompasses names, phone numbers, and shipping addresses provided by customers, and Coupang has informed the affected individuals about the breach in accordance with guidelines from the state’s personal information protection authority.
This disclosure arises as Coupang faces heightened scrutiny over the substantial data leak first revealed in November, which has affected more than 33 million customers in South Korea and prompted an official investigation.