Coupang executives sold millions of dollars’ worth of company stock shortly after a major customer data breach took place — but before the company publicly disclosed the incident — according to newly released U.S. regulatory filings.
SEC filings show that Coupang CFO Gaurav Anand sold 75,350 shares of Coupang Inc. on November 10 at an average price of $29.0195, for a total of roughly $2.19 million.
Former vice president Pranam Kolari also unloaded shares around the same period. Kolari reported selling 27,388 shares on November 17 for approximately $772,000. Kolari previously oversaw search and recommendation technologies at Coupang before resigning on November 14.
Both stock sales occurred after the data breach took place but before Coupang publicly acknowledged the incident — timing that could prompt scrutiny over potential insider trading, even though the transactions were reported in compliance with regulatory requirements.
Coupang disclosed on November 29 that approximately 33.7 million customer accounts were exposed in a large-scale data breach. Compromised information included names, emails, phone numbers, addresses and certain order details.
Earlier, the company had notified South Korean regulators that a smaller breach affecting about 4,500 customers was identified on November 18.
However, documents submitted to the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) indicate that the first unauthorized access to Coupang accounts occurred on November 6 at 6:38 p.m. KST. Coupang said it did not become aware of the intrusion until November 18 at 10:52 p.m., roughly 12 days later.
The stock sales by the CFO and a recently departed senior technology executive during such a sensitive period are expected to draw heightened scrutiny from investors, regulators and lawmakers. The breach has already triggered questions about Coupang’s cybersecurity oversight and its delay in detecting the intrusion.
Coupang said it is cooperating fully with authorities and strengthening its security systems following the incident.
