A employee walks by a door at a Coupang success heart in Seoul on Dec. 17, 2025, as the corporate faces Nationwide Meeting scrutiny over an enormous leak of buyer info. (Yonhap)
Following an enormous leak of shoppers’ private info, Korea’s Nationwide Tax Service has put collectively a serious job pressure to conduct a particular audit of the e-commerce platform Coupang.
In an unprecedented transfer, the Seoul Regional Tax Workplace has mobilized each its fourth audit division and its worldwide transaction investigation bureau for an audit that’s anticipated to deal with the capital flows of Coupang associates and its US headquarters.
Based on the sources with information of the tax service, the Seoul Regional Tax Workplace despatched over 150 brokers to Coupang’s Korean headquarters and Coupang Achievement Providers in Seoul’s Songpa District on Monday morning. Brokers raided Coupang’s places of work and secured the accounting paperwork required to conduct their audit.
Answerable for non-routine audits, the service’s fourth audit division is the workforce that’s mobilized when suspicions of large-scale slush funds or tax evasion are concerned — in different phrases, audits outdoors the scope of strange day-to-day investigations.
The division is unofficially generally known as the “grim reaper” of the enterprise and finance neighborhood, comparable in authority to the bygone Central Investigation Bureau of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Workplace.
Whereas Coupang Achievement Providers, the agency’s subsidiary chargeable for logistics and distribution, is listed because the official goal of the audit, investigators are reportedly trying into Coupang’s Korean operations as an entire.
“The mobilization of the fourth audit division seems to be a declaration of intent by the NTS to focus its investigations on what it sees as a serious case,” one supply commented.
A NTS official mentioned that they “couldn’t affirm something concerning particular allegations.”
The audit of the Coupang affiliate seems prone to be step one towards auditing the web retailer platform’s headquarters. The participation of the worldwide transaction audit division signifies that the service intends to look at capital actions from Coupang’s Korean operations to its US-based father or mother firm, Coupang Inc.
Established in 2016, Coupang Achievement Providers is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Coupang. It’s primarily chargeable for Coupang’s logistics and distribution, the crux of Coupang’s enterprise mannequin. As of final 12 months, Coupang Achievement Providers recorded 4.37 trillion received (US$2.95 billion) in income, and had 78,159 workers on the books.
As the federal government ramps up its strain on Coupang, with the NTS audit approaching high of investigations already underway by Korea’s Honest Commerce Fee and the Private Data Safety Fee, the Democratic Occasion has mentioned it would maintain a listening to from Dec. 30 to 31 concerning the agency’s current knowledge leak.
“The Nationwide Meeting’s Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee; Nationwide Coverage Committee; Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee; and Local weather, Vitality, Surroundings and Labor Committee are scheduled to participate within the joint Coupang listening to,” Huh Younger, a chief deputy ground chief for the Democratic Occasion, informed reporters on Monday.
“The science committee will oversee the proceedings, and its chair, Rep. Choi Min-hee, will act because the chair of the listening to. Kim Hyun, the vice chairperson of the science committee, will act because the coordinating chair of the listening to,” he added.
Concerning plans to have the Technique and Finance Committee take part within the listening to, Huh mentioned that the committee would attend the listening to to debate the particular audit by the NTS.
Nonetheless, it seems unlikely that Coupang founder and Coupang Inc. CEO Kim Bom-suk — often known as Bom Kim — will make an look on the listening to. Concerning this potential absence, Kim Hyun raised the potential for urgent further costs.
“The Nationwide Meeting nonetheless has the choice of a parliamentary probe up its sleeve, so we won’t relaxation till Kim involves Korea and offers solutions on follow-up accountability measures,” the lawmaker mentioned.
By Park Su-ji, employees reporter; Ko Han-sol, employees reporter
Please direct questions or feedback to [english@hani.co.kr]
