'Kakao Former Group Head Resigns After Spending 100 Million on Game Items with Company Card'

It has been confirmed that the former Kakao Finance Group Head, who was disciplined for using a corporate card to purchase game items worth 100 million won, has stepped down.

According to industry sources on the 11th, Mr. A, the former Finance Group Head (Vice President) of Kakao, resigned from his position as an Outside Director at Kakao Games. An Outside Director is a non-executive director who, like internal and external directors, has voting rights at the board of directors.

Kakao Games plans to appoint executives from Kakao headquarters as successor Outside Directors at the upcoming general shareholders' meeting on the 28th. Mr. A has also stepped down from Kakao Enterprise, K&Works, and DK Tech, other Kakao affiliates, and it is reported that he no longer holds any director positions within Kakao affiliates.

Mr. A was disciplined with a three-month suspension and removed from his post on September 1 last year after it was revealed that he used a corporate card to purchase game items worth approximately 100 million won. After the disciplinary action, Mr. A reportedly expressed his intention to resign from his director positions within the affiliates and did not attend board meetings.

Kakao affiliates have begun the process of appointing successor directors, with Kakao Enterprise completing the director replacement by appointing Park Jun-seok, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), as an internal director. Kakao has also implemented improvement measures, including establishing regulations on corporate card usage locations and limits, to prevent recurrence.

The Kakao Labor Union filed a police complaint against Mr. A last September on charges of breach of trust and embezzlement, but according to Kakao’s internal regulations that allow game purchases with corporate cards, he was cleared of charges in December last year.