Seoul, Feb 6 (IANS) The interim chief executive of Coupang, Harold Rogers, was set to undergo police questioning on Friday over perjury allegations related to his testimony to lawmakers last year, marking his second appearance before investigators in a week.

Police seek to question Rogers about allegations that he gave false testimony under oath about Coupang’s internal investigation into its massive data breach during a two-day parliamentary hearing on the leak in late December, reports Yonhap news agency.

Rogers told lawmakers during the hearing that Coupang conducted its own probe into a Chinese national suspected of involvement in the breach and confiscated his laptop at the instructions of the National Intelligence Service.

The intelligence agency, however, denied the claim, prompting a parliamentary committee to file a complaint seeking an investigation into Rogers, as well as six other former and incumbent Coupang executives, for committing perjury.

Rogers earlier underwent a 12-hour interrogation session last Friday over allegations of obstruction of justice in connection with the data leak that has affected more than 33 million customers in South Korea.

Rogers had defied two previous police summonses and left South Korea in early January. He returned to Seoul days before the first interrogation.

Meanwhile, Coupang said on Thursday it has discovered a data leak of personal information from more than 165,000 customer accounts linked to an incident it first identified in November last year.

The leaked data includes names, phone numbers and addresses entered by customers on the address list for shipping, and the company has notified affected customers of the breach in line with recommendations from the state personal information protection watchdog, Coupang said.

The disclosure came as Coupang has come under intense scrutiny over the massive data leak revealed in November that has affected more than 33 million customers in South Korea and prompted authorities to launch an investigation.

—IANS

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