Coupang exec stock sales planned a year in advance says company, citing U.S. SEC filings

Several senior executives at Coupang sold large amounts of company stock shortly before the company became aware of a major personal data breach, according to U.S. regulatory filings. Coupang said the stock sales had been planned a year in advance.

Coupang CEO Park Dae-jun, second from left, answers lawmakers’ questions during a parliamentary inquiry into the company’s recent data breach at the National Assembly’s National Policy Committee on Dec. 3. [YONHAP]

Several senior executives at Coupang sold large amounts of company stock shortly before the company became aware of a major personal data breach, according to U.S. regulatory filings. Coupang said the stock sales had been planned a year in advance and were unrelated to the incident.

According to a Tuesday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Coupang Chief Financial Officer Gaurav Anand reported selling 75,350 shares of Coupang Inc. on Nov. 10 at $29 per share. The sale totaled $2.19 million.

Former Coupang vice president of engineering Pranam Kolari also sold 27,388 shares on Nov. 17, worth about $770,000. Kolari previously oversaw the e-commerce platform's search and recommendation functions as the technology leader.

Coupang notified the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) that unauthorized access to user account information occurred at 6:38 p.m. on Nov. 6, according to liberal Democratic Party Rep. Choi Min-hee, who chairs the National Assembly’s Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee. Coupang’s own internal recognition of the breach was recorded at 10:52 p.m. on Nov. 18.

The timing prompted speculation that the executives may have attempted to avoid losses by disposing of shares shortly after the breach occurred.

A text message from Coupang notifying a user of the ″exposure″ of personal information in a recent data breach is seen in this photo taken Dec. 1. [YONHAP]

However, Anand’s statement of changes in beneficial ownership filed with the SEC shows the sale was executed under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, adopted in December 2023.

“The sales reported on this Form 4 were effected pursuant to a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan adopted by the Reporting Person on Dec. 8, 2024, which was entered into primarily to satisfy certain tax obligations,” states a note attached to the filing. This indicates the timing and volume of the sale were predetermined roughly a year before the breach.

Coupang’s papers filed with the SEC also shows that Kolari informed Coupang of his resignation on Oct. 15, with the departure taking effect Nov. 14. This means that the stocks were sold after his resignation was official, unrelated to the data leak.

Meanwhile, Coupang CEO Park Dae-jun reported that there was “no sign of intrusion into Coupang Pay or other payment systems, and based on what has been confirmed so far, there is no evidence of payment information leakage” when attending an emergency session of the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee on Wednesday,

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom. BY NOH YU-RIM [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]