Seoul: The interim chief executive of Coupang, Harold Rogers, is set to face police questioning again on Friday over allegations of perjury, marking his second appearance before investigators in a week.

According to Yonhap News Agency, police are investigating claims that Rogers gave false testimony under oath to South Korean lawmakers during a two-day parliamentary hearing in December on Coupang’s massive data breach.

Testimony under scrutiny

Rogers had told lawmakers that Coupang conducted an internal investigation into a Chinese national suspected of involvement in the data leak and confiscated his laptop at the direction of the National Intelligence Service (NIS). The NIS later denied issuing any such instruction, prompting a parliamentary committee to file a complaint seeking an investigation into Rogers and six other current and former Coupang executives for alleged perjury.

Earlier interrogation and obstruction allegations

Last Friday, Rogers underwent a 12-hour police interrogation over separate allegations of obstruction of justice related to the data breach, which has affected more than 33 million customers in South Korea.

Rogers had previously ignored two police summonses and left South Korea in early January before returning to Seoul days ahead of his first interrogation.

Fresh data leak disclosed

Meanwhile, Coupang announced on Thursday that it had discovered a new data breach affecting more than 165,000 customer accounts, linked to an incident first identified in November last year.

The leaked information includes names, phone numbers and addresses entered by customers for delivery purposes. The company said it has notified affected users in line with recommendations from the country’s personal information protection authority.

Regulatory scrutiny intensifies

The latest disclosure comes as Coupang remains under intense regulatory and public scrutiny following the earlier breach that exposed the personal data of more than 33 million users, triggering a wide-ranging government investigation into the company’s data security practices.

IANS