Kakao's Reform Closer Kim Jeong-ho, Fired After Swearing Scandal

Last September, at the request of Kim Beom-su, the founder of Kakao, Kim Jeong-ho, former head of management support at the Kakao CA Council who was in charge of Kakao's reform efforts, has left the company. This is because the Kakao Ethics Committee decided to dismiss Kim due to allegations of using abusive language and leaking internal information.

According to the IT industry on the 17th, the Kakao Standing Ethics Committee announced through an internal notice on the 15th that it had decided to dismiss former head Kim as a disciplinary action. The Ethics Committee cited defamation based on false information, unauthorized leakage of unverified internal information, and violation of media response guidelines as the reasons for the disciplinary action.

When controversy arose in November last year over allegations that Kim used abusive language during an internal meeting, he revealed internal corruption at Kakao on his social networking service (SNS), stating it was "an issue that surfaced while pointing out work practices." He raised suspicions of corruption related to three construction projects promoted by the Asset Development Office, including the Jeju ESG Center, Seoul Arena, and Ansan IDC.

However, after audits were conducted by two law firms, it was found that much of the 'internal corruption at Kakao' claimed by Kim was factually incorrect. The Ethics Committee stated, "As a result of the audit, the three construction projects selected contractors according to internal approval processes, and no collusion with contractors was confirmed during the contractor change process. Overall, the projects proceeded according to the company's internal procedures."

It was confirmed that a significant portion of the statements made by Kim during the investigation were either untrue or lacked evidence to be considered factual. Furthermore, the Ethics Committee added, "After reviewing the case including the investigation results, we decided to dismiss former head Kim due to workplace harassment and violations of SNS activity guidelines."

It is known that former head Kim accepted the Ethics Committee's decision and chose not to request a retrial of the disciplinary action.