Kakao CTO Amid 'Meoktwi' Controversy Will Not Sell Kakao Bank Shares While in Office

Kakao Submits Improvement Plan to Junshinwi
Strengthening New Management Verification Procedures

Kakao has decided to strengthen its executive verification procedures. Jeong Gyudon, Kakao's Chief Technology Officer (CTO), who faced controversy over stock 'eat-and-run,' has decided to retain his KakaoBank shares without selling them during his tenure.

According to Kakao on the 25th, the company submitted an improvement plan with these details to the external oversight body, the 'Compliance and Trust Committee (Junshinwi),' the day before.

Last month, Junshinwi recommended that Kakao establish improvement measures regarding the controversy over the appointment of new executives. This followed the controversy surrounding Jeong CTO's large-scale stock option exercises immediately after KakaoBank's listing, which was seen as an 'eat-and-run.'

When Jeong CTO was serving as KakaoBank CTO, he sold 106,000 shares out of 117,234 shares held within three trading days after KakaoBank's listing, at 62,336 KRW per share, earning approximately 6.6 billion KRW in sales proceeds. Two weeks later, he sold the remaining 11,234 shares at 91,636 KRW per share, securing over 1 billion KRW.

In the improvement plan, Kakao included the creation of a new executive appointment committee with enhanced verification procedures compared to before, aiming to conduct a systematic and professional process from candidate list formation to personnel verification stages.

Junshinwi accepted Kakao's improvement plan. The committee stated, "We respect Kakao's willingness and efforts to improve and will work together to ensure that the strengthened verification system takes root."