Smith filed suit in 2023 after reporting the transactions to the SEC and escalating his concerns to supervisors. Although Smith worked in South Korea for a Coupang subsidiary, the court determined in March 2025 that the employment relationship's center was in the United States, allowing the case to proceed under Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower protections and state law claims. The specific settlement terms remain undisclosed.
The case established precedent for SOX protections extending to employees working abroad for foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies—a distinction that will matter for multinational corporations managing compliance across borders. For Coupang specifically, the settlement concludes one of several legal headwinds facing the Seattle-headquartered e-commerce company, which is also defending securities class actions stemming from a 2025 data breach affecting 33.7 million customers.