Coupang’s data breach undetected for five months, triggering customer alarm (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — Two senior Coupang executives sold tens of millions of won worth of company stock shortly after a massive data breach occurred — but before the company acknowledged the incident — raising concerns about potential insider trading.
According to a Dec. 2 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gaurav Anand, Coupang’s chief financial officer, sold 75,350 shares on Nov. 10 at US$29.0195 each, totaling roughly US$2.19 million (about 3.2 billion won).
Pranam Kholari, a former senior vice president overseeing search and recommendations, also sold 27,388 shares on Nov. 17 for about US$772,000 (1.13 billion won). Kholari resigned on Nov. 14.
Both transactions took place before Coupang publicly disclosed the scope of the breach but after unauthorized access to user accounts had occurred — a timeline likely to intensify scrutiny over whether executives acted on nonpublic information.
Coupang announced on Nov. 29 that approximately 33.7 million customer accounts had been compromised, including names, emails, phone numbers, addresses and select order details. Earlier, on Nov. 18, the company had reported a smaller breach affecting roughly 4,500 users.
A report submitted to the Korea Internet & Security Agency shows that Coupang detected unauthorized access on Nov. 6 at 6:38 p.m. but did not identify the breach until Nov. 18 — a 12-day gap now prompting questions from lawmakers and regulators.
The timing of the stock sales is expected to draw heightened attention as investigations into the data leak — one of the largest in Korea’s e-commerce sector — continue.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
