SEOUL: The billionaire founder of South Korea’s Coupang failed to appear before a parliamentary hearing in Seoul on Wednesday (Dec 17) over the e-commerce group’s recent data breach, prompting a decision to file a legal complaint over his absence.
Coupang CEO and chairman Bom Kim declined to attend, citing his overseas residence and commitments as head of a global company operating in more than 170 countries.
“Chairman Bom Kim’s claim that he cannot attend because he is travelling abroad and is a global CEO is, in my view, an act that truly mocks the public and delivers despair to global investors,” said lawmaker Choi Hyung-du.
“Even Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos – heads of companies larger than Coupang – did not refuse to appear before Congress hearings,” he said.
South Korea’s National Assembly later decided to file a legal complaint against the Coupang founder and former chief executive officers under a law that compels witnesses to attend hearings and make themselves available for investigations. Under the law, people can be fined or imprisoned for refusing testimony.
YELLING IN PARLIAMENT
Emotions ran high at the hearing, with lawmakers often shouting at Harold Rogers, the interim CEO of Coupang Corp, the company’s South Korean unit, who was standing in for Kim. Rogers repeatedly asked to be allowed to finish his answers.
“I’m in communication with our board of directors, including with our chairman,” Rogers said, but then added: “I am the decision maker in Korea.”
The personal data of more than 33 million Coupang customers was leaked in a breach believed to have started on Jun 24 through overseas servers, though the company did not learn of the problem until Nov 18.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/coupang-data-leak-ceo-bom-kim-legal-action-5623726
