(LEAD) Coupang's interim CEO appears for police questioning over massive data breach

▲ Harold Rogers, interim CEO of Coupang Corp., arrives at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's headquarters in central Seoul on Jan. 30, 2026, to be questioned about allegations of evidence destruction in connection with a massive data breach at the company. (Yonhap)

▲ Harold Rogers, interim CEO of Coupang Corp., arrives at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's headquarters in central Seoul on Jan. 30, 2026, to be questioned about allegations of evidence destruction in connection with a massive data breach at the company. (Yonhap)

(LEAD) Coupang CEO-police probe

(LEAD) Coupang's interim CEO appears for police questioning over massive data breach

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By Chae Yun-hwan

SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Yonhap) -- Harold Rogers, interim CEO of Coupang Corp., appeared before police Friday to be questioned about suspicions of evidence destruction in connection with a massive data breach at the e-commerce company.

Rogers is accused of obstructing police and government investigations into the breach -- estimated to have affected nearly 33 million users -- by independently announcing that data from only 3,000 accounts were actually leaked.

"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 the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.

He did not respond to reporters' questions about the allegations of evidence destruction and the basis of the company's announcement.

Police, who believe more than 30 million accounts were affected, are investigating Coupang over whether the outcome of its internal probe is reliable. The government has criticized the company's findings as one-sided.

Investigators seek to question Rogers about the internal probe and examine whether there were attempts to destroy or tamper with evidence.

They are expected to question him about the company's attempts to contact the suspect in China behind the breach and its forensic analysis of the suspect's computer, which took place without police cooperation.

Rogers, who defied two previous police summonses, had left South Korea on Jan. 1, a day after attending a two-day parliamentary hearing into the retail giant's leak, before returning to the country last week.

He is also accused of perjuring himself before parliament over his remarks during the hearing that the company conducted the internal probe at the National Intelligence Service's (NIS) instructions. The NIS has denied the claim.

Rogers faces additional allegations of ordering a report to shield the company from liability after a logistics center worker's death in 2020.

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