Suspicious Stock Sales by Coupang Executives... Shares Sold Before 'Personal Data Leak' Disclosure

[Financial News] It has been confirmed that Coupang executives sold company shares worth billions of won. Since the sales took place before Coupang disclosed its awareness of the personal data leak, controversy is expected.
According to a filing by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the 2nd (local time), Gaurav Anand, Coupang's Chief Financial Officer, disposed of 75,350 shares of Coupang, Inc. on the 10th of last month at $29.0195 per share. The total sale amounted to approximately $2.186 million (about 3.2 billion KRW).
Pranam Kolari, former Vice President, also sold 27,388 shares on the 17th of last month, converting about $772,000 (approximately 1.13 billion KRW) into cash. Kolari, who oversaw search and recommendation technology, resigned on the 14th of last month.
Both CFO Anand and former Vice President Kolari sold their shares before Coupang became aware of the data breach.
According to a breach report submitted by the office of Choi Min-hee, a member of the Science, ICT, Broadcasting, and Communications Committee of the National Assembly of South Korea from the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), based on information from the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), unauthorized access to Coupang occurred at 6:38 p.m. on November 6. Coupang reported first becoming aware of the breach at 10:52 p.m. on the 18th of last month.
The fact that both current and former executives sold shares just before the company became aware of the data leak has raised suspicions of insider trading.

In response, Coupang explained that the executives’ stock sales were unrelated to the data breach. CFO Anand executed the sale according to a pre-established trading plan under SEC insider trading regulation 'Rule 10b5-1,' set on December 8 of last year. The disclosed reason for the sale was tax payment.
In the SEC filing, former Vice President Kolari stated that he resigned on October 15. However, the stock sale was disclosed after his resignation, on November 14. According to SEC rules, even former employees must report sales of more than 5,000 shares after the fact.
Initially, Coupang reported 4,500 cases of personal data leaks, but on the 29th of last month (Korean time), the number was revised to approximately 33.7 million.
Following news of the large-scale leak, Coupang’s stock price dropped more than 5% on the New York Stock Exchange on the 1st (local time), but rebounded slightly by 0.23% the next day amid expectations that subscriber attrition would be limited.
y27k@fnnews.com Seo Yoon-kyung Reporter