Kakao to form compliance committee amid recent scandals

Kakao will establish a compliance committee and appoint former Supreme Court Justice Kim So-young as its head to address recent scandals.

Former Supreme Court Justice Kim So-young [JOONGANG PHOTO]

Kakao will form a compliance committee and name former Supreme Court Justice Kim So-young as the head.

“Kakao is aware of our current crisis and that our way of management is no longer sustainable,” Kakao founder Kim Beom-su said Friday. “I will fully respect the committee's decision and as the largest shareholder, I will ask the subsidiaries to take full responsibility for their actions and talk to businesses that don't abide by [the decisions of the committee.]”

The decision comes as Kakao executives have recently been caught in various scandals including an alleged stock price manipulation linked to a takeover bid of SM Entertainment.

The committee will be established as an independent organization outside the company, Kakao said. The establishment will be finalized by the end of the year.

It will have the full right to “inspect Kakao's major risks and ongoing controversial issues such as the excessive IPOs of its subsidiaries” and being a “monopoly” in the market.

Having studied law at Seoul National University, Kim passed the bar examination in 1987. She served as a Justice of the Supreme Court between 2012 and 2018. She has been working as a lawyer at Kim & Chang since 2022.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]