“Coupang’s announcement of its own investigation is obstruction of the investigation”… Chairman Kim Beom-seok additionally sued

(Seoul = News 1) Reporter Han Soo-hyun = Amid continued criticism that Coupang was conducting a 'self-investigation' for independently announcing its own investigation results without consulting with the government and investigative agencies in relation to the customer information leak, Coupang Inc. Chairman Kim Beom-seok and other executives were additionally sued for allegedly interfering with the investigation.

According to the legal community on the 26th, Jihyang Law Firm announced on behalf of the victims of Coupang's customer information leak that it submitted a complaint to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency against top executives, including Chairman Kim and Coupang CEO Harold Rogers, on charges of obstruction of official duties, destruction of evidence, and obstruction of business.

Coupang announced in a press notice the previous day (25th) that this personal information leak incident was the sole act of a former employee. Coupang said that as a result of its own investigation, the employee accessed the information of 33 million customers, but only stored the information of 3,000 accounts separately.

However, while the public-private joint investigation team and police investigation are currently underway, an issue has been raised that Coupang unilaterally announced the results of the investigation as if they were official investigation results. The reliability of the announcement was also pointed out.

Jihyang believed that Coupang's investigation and announcement of results was an attempt to interfere with the government's official investigation and work and systematically conceal the crime, and filed an additional complaint.

Jihyang pointed out, “Coupang’s announcement of a ‘self-investigation’ is an act of deception both to state agencies and the 33.7 million affected citizens,” and added, “It cannot be an act intended to neutralize the national response and mislead the investigation, rather than simply providing information.”

He continued, "By defining all responsibility as the sole crime of a single former employee, the intention was to fundamentally block the possibility of systematic intervention or systematic security failure and reduce the scope of the investigation," and added, "We cannot erase the suspicion that this is a typical 'tail cutting' attempt to conceal the background of the incident and avoid top management's responsibility."

In particular, Jihyang pointed out that former employee A's claim that he personally recovered the laptop that was thrown into the river was a 'serious act of obstruction of justice.'

Jihyang claimed, "It is an attempt to ignore the country's legitimate evidence securing procedures and preempt and contaminate the evidence, and it is a high-level ploy to confuse the investigation by damaging the evidentiary capacity and probative power of the original evidence and submitting the contaminated evidence to the investigative agency."

He continued, “Coupang directly interfered with the important self-protection task of responding to emergencies for each citizen by creating a false sense of security, and exposed 33.7 million people defenselessly to the possibility of paralysis of social life, such as massive smishing damage or account freezes.”

He emphasized, "We must immediately ban all Coupang executives and employees involved in this incident from leaving the country, and quickly begin a compulsory investigation, including search and seizure of the office and the residences of those involved." He added, "Chairman Kim, who is staying in the United States, must be immediately summoned and investigated, and if he fails to comply, all means, including international criminal justice cooperation, must be taken."

Meanwhile, despite Coupang's unilateral announcement, the group lawsuit filed by Jihyang, Daeryun Law Firm, and LKB Pyeongsan will proceed without change.

Attorney Jang Ji-woon and Dae-ryun said, "The fact that Coupang investigated first without handing over the identity of the secured distributor to the investigative agency raises suspicions of destruction of evidence and is highly likely to encourage distortion of the truth. It has no impact on future group lawsuits or criminal complaints."

He added, "As the investigative agency is conducting the investigation, it is unlikely that the state agency will trust or cite the results of the investigation by the suspect, Coupang," and added, "If the results of Coupang's investigation are different from the facts revealed through future investigations, Coupang's responsibility, such as allegations of post-facto concealment, will only be aggravated."

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"Coupang's announcement of its own investigation is obstruction of the investigation"... Chairman Kim Beom-seok additionally sued