CEO of US-listed e-commerce company questioned in South Korea about data leak

​​​​​​​By Saadet Gokce

ISTANBUL (AA) - A US-listed e-commerce company’s interim CEO was questioned by South Korean police Friday on suspicions of evidence destruction related to a massive data breach, according to Seoul-based Yonhap news agency.

Coupang’s interim CEO Harold Rogers is accused of obstructing police and government investigations into the breach by claiming that data from only 3,000 accounts had been compromised. But police estimate that 33 million users were affected

"Coupang has fully and will continue to fully cooperate with all of the government investigations that are looking into us. We will also fully cooperate with the police investigation today," Rogers said as he arrived at a police station in Seoul.

Police are investigating Coupang over whether the outcome of its internal probe is reliable.

The government has criticized the company's findings as one-sided.

Police are expected to have questioned Rogers about the firm’s attempts to contact the suspect in China behind the breach and its forensic analysis of the suspect’s computer, which was conducted without police cooperation.

Rogers has defied two previous police summonses and left South Korea at the beginning of the year after attending a two-day parliamentary hearing into the breach. He returned to South Korea last week.

He is also accused of lying under oath during the hearing at the parliament that the company conducted an internal investigation at the behest of the National Intelligence Service.

The intelligence service has rejected the claim.

Roger is also accused of ordering a report to shield the company from liability after a logistics center worker's death in 2020.