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Coupang executives liquidated shares before public disclosure of data breach

Published: 03 Dec. 2025, 08:53

A Coupang delivery truck is seen at a company garage in Seoul on Nov. 30. [YONHAP]

Two key executives at Coupang sold shares worth millions of dollars between when the company's data breach occurred and when the incident was publicly disclosed.

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, Coupang Chief Financial Officer Gaurav Anand reported that he sold 75,350 shares of Coupang stock on Nov. 10 at a price of $29.0195 per share.

The sale totaled approximately $2.19 million.

Pranam Kolari, former vice president of search and recommendations, also disclosed the sale of 27,388 shares on Nov. 17, amounting to $772,000.

Kolari resigned on Nov. 14.

The timing of the stock sales by CFO Anand and former Vice President Kolari came before Coupang publicly acknowledged the data breach.

Although the sales occurred before the company officially disclosed its awareness of the breach, the stock disposals by current and former high-ranking executives during a sensitive period could raise concerns over possible insider trading.

Coupang announced last Saturday that the personal information of approximately 33.7 million customer accounts had been compromised, including names, email addresses, phone numbers, home addresses and some order history.

Prior to that, Coupang had first reported the breach to authorities on Nov. 18, acknowledging that the data of about 4,500 users had been compromised.

Coupang said that unauthorized access to account information occurred on Nov. 6 at 6:38 p.m., according to the breach report submitted to the Korea Internet and Security Agency, and obtained by Rep. Choi Min-hee, chair of the National Assembly’s Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee.

However, the company did not become aware of the incident until Nov. 18 at 10:52 p.m., 12 days after the breach occurred.

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 JUNG SI-NAE [[email protected]]