On March 25, 2025, in Smith v. Coupang,[1] the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington denied Coupang, Inc.’s motion to dismiss its former employee’s SOX and state law whistleblower claims despite the plaintiff working in South Korea for a South Korean subsidiary of a U.S.-based publicly traded company.
Plaintiff is a U.S. citizen who worked in South Korea for a South Korean subsidiary of Coupang, Inc., Coupang Corp. Smith alleged he, among other things, identified, reported and pushed for disclosure of the company’s transactions with Iranian entities to the SEC, and raised the company’s inadequate internal and functional accounting controls to his supervisors. Smith asserted that he raised these concerns to supervisors in South Korea and in the United States, with the goal of preventing securities and shareholder fraud. Smith alleged he was subsequently retaliated against when he was placed on administrative leave and had his laptop taken in late 2021, and ultimately was discharged in January 2022. Smith alleged these decisions were made from Washington and/or California. Smith asserted claims for retaliation in violation of Section 806 of SOX, and under various state law theories.
The company moved to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) on various grounds, including that Smith’s SOX claim was barred by the statute of limitations and doctrine of extraterritoriality, and that Smith did not engage in protected activity.
A longtime contractor at the Hanford Site has come to an agreement with the Federal Government over allegations that the company was fraudulently billing the Department of Energy(DOE). The investig...