A truck bearing the Coupang brand is seen at one in every of its logistics branches in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap
The Nationwide Tax Service (NTS) has launched a rare tax probe into Coupang Corp., Korea’s largest e-commerce retailer, and its U.S. father or mother firm, Coupang Inc., following a current information breach, in accordance with business officers Monday.
The transfer comes amid the mounting strain on Coupang Corp. and Coupang Inc., which have been criticized for failing to reply adequately to the leak of private info affecting roughly 33.7 million prospects.
The information breach, allegedly carried out by a former worker between June and November this 12 months, got here to mild in late November.
In accordance with the officers, the tax authority has mobilized two key bureaus from its Seoul Regional Tax Workplace. One bureau is liable for investigating tax evasion, slush fund creation and different irregular tax actions, whereas the opposite oversees worldwide transactions.
“About 150 investigators from the 2 bureaus have been dispatched to Coupang’s Seoul headquarters and its logistics subsidiary, Coupang Achievement Providers,” one official stated.
The transfer is extensively interpreted as a particular tax investigation that goes past a routine audit. Though the formal targets are Coupang Corp. and Coupang Achievement Providers, the NTS is successfully analyzing the e-commerce retailer’s general enterprise construction, significantly in relation to its U.S. father or mother firm.
One other business official stated the involvement of the bureau dealing with worldwide transactions suggests the investigation is specializing in the group-wide profit-shifting construction, with transactions involving the U.S. headquarters below specific scrutiny.
After the info breach was disclosed to the general public, Coupang executives have been questioned on the Nationwide Meeting.
Nonetheless, the corporate’s founder and de facto head Kim Bom-suk, also referred to as Bom Kim, refused to look on the hearings, citing his position as a worldwide chief govt quite than a Korea-based govt.
Beneath the circumstances, the ruling Democratic Social gathering of Korea stated Monday that it’ll maintain extra hearings on Dec. 30 and 31 in cooperation with the Science, ICT, Broadcasting, and Communications Committee, the Nationwide Coverage Committee, the Land Infrastructure and Transport Committee and the Local weather, Vitality, Surroundings, and Labor Committee.
Following the huge information breach, Coupang’s every day energetic consumer rely fell to 14.88 million as of Friday, in accordance with MobileIndex, an information platform operated by business tracker IGAWorks.
This marked the primary time Coupang’s every day consumer rely fell beneath 15 million since Oct. 25, when it recorded 14.91 million customers.
The NTS declined to substantiate the investigation, saying “We can not confirm any info concerning tax investigations of particular person taxpayers or firms.”
