Andrew Lee (entrepreneur)

Andrew Lee (born December 1983)[1] is a Korean-American entrepreneur. He is the founder of the VPN service Private Internet Access, which started in 2010.[2] He is the heir to Yi Seok, who in turn is claimed by some to be the heir of the former Korean monarchy.[3][4]

Andrew Lee
Hangul
Revised RomanizationLee Aendeuryu
McCune–ReischauerLee Aendŭryu
In this Korean name, the family name is Lee.
Andrew Lee
Crown Prince of Korea (disputed)
ReignOctober 2018 – present
BornIndianapolis, Indiana, United States
SpousePrincess Nana Lee
HouseHouse of Yi

Career

In 2009, Lee founded London Trust Media (LTM), a private holdings company. In 2010, he founded Private Internet Access (PIA), a virtual private network service for anonymizing Internet traffic.[5] He claimed to have started PIA because of his interest in Internet Relay Chat (IRC), whose users' IP addresses could be easily revealed, but only after the Freenode purchase.[6] Lee and co-owner Steve DeProspero sold LTM (and its subsidiary PIA) to Israeli company Kape Technologies for US$95.5 million in November 2019.[7][8] Lee co-founded Mt. Gox Live, a bitcoin price tracker that was later acquired by the now-defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox.[9]

In 2017, Christel Dahlskjaer, then the head of staff at Freenode, incorporated and transferred ownership of Freenode Limited to Lee;[10] Dahlskjaer and Lee said the company was solely for funding the network and running the Freenode #live conferences.[11][12] According to staff, they were not informed of the contents of the deal and were told that it would not affect Freenode's day-to-day operations, as the company only managed the conference and nothing else.[12][13] A dispute over changes Lee imposed in 2021 resulted in all of Freenode's 20 to 30 staff members resigning.[11][12] This team went on to form a new network called Libera Chat.[11]

Personal life

Andrew Lee was born in Indianapolis and raised in Carmel, a city in the Indianapolis metro area.[14][3] He enrolled in Purdue University and transferred to the University at Buffalo, but later dropped out to start working.[3]

In October 2018, Yi Seok, a member of the House of Yi and one of the pretenders to the defunct imperial throne of Korea, declared Lee the crown prince of Korea at a ceremony in Los Angeles, attended by Bermuda premier David Burt, and city officials from Los Angeles and Jeonju.[3][15]

In 2020, Lee and his family moved to a mansion in Hidden Valley, Ventura County, California.[14][16]

In the afternoon of November 18, 2022, J-Money, driving a Rolls-Royce Phantom registered to Andrew Lee, was shot and robbed by 2 men in Koreatown, Los Angeles.[17][18] As of February 2023, the perpetrators have not been identified.[19] Andrew Lee, under the rapper name KingLee, appeared on J-Money's album titled "Dun It All".[20]

References
  1. "Appointment of Director". Companies House. 11 April 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
  2. Smith, Nicola (29 December 2018). "Californian techie becomes Korean crown prince in fairytale twist". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 18 May 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  3. Tai, Crystal (2 December 2018). "This is no K-drama: the fresh prince of South Korea is real royalty, and he's American". South China Morning Post. Alibaba Group. Archived from the original on 26 March 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  4. "Prince hopes to bring monarchy back to S.Korea". Reuters. 19 January 2007. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  5. Eha, Brian Patrick (6 April 2017). "The Gray Hat". How Money Got Free: Bitcoin and the Fight for the Future of Finance. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781780746593.
  6. Searls, Doc (30 May 2018). "The Fight for Control: Andrew Lee on Open-Sourcing PIA". Linux Journal. Linux Journal, LLC. Archived from the original on 18 May 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  7. "Proposed acquisition of Private Internet Access". Financial Times. Nikkei, Inc. Regulatory News Service. 19 November 2019. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  8. "Teddy Sagi's Kape buying US digital privacy co LTMI". Globes. 19 November 2019. Archived from the original on 28 May 2021. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  9. "Interview with Andrew Lee of Private Internet Access". GNOME Foundation. 23 September 2013. Archived from the original on 19 May 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  10. "PIA and freenode joining forces - freenode". freenode.net. Archived from the original on 20 May 2021. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  11. Franceschi-Bicchierai, Lorenzo (19 May 2021). "Developers Flee Open Source Project After 'Takeover' By Korean Crown Prince". Vice. Archived from the original on 19 May 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  12. Nardi, Tom (19 May 2021). "Freenode debacle prompts staff exodus, new network". Hackaday. Archived from the original on 20 May 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  13. "Freenode IRC staff resign en masse, unhappy about new management". The Register. 19 May 2021. Archived from the original on 21 May 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  14. Warren, Katie (14 December 2020). "A South Korean royal couple just dropped $12.6 million on a sprawling southern California estate. Take a look at the lavish 20-acre property". Business Insider. Axel Springer SE. Archived from the original on 19 May 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  15. Chung, Monica Younsoo (27 October 2018). "Andrew Lee, the Prince of Korea plans launching Imperial Fund to invest for Korean small businesses". Korea IT Times. Archived from the original on 19 May 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  16. Flemming, Jack (1 December 2020). "South Korean royals shell out $12.6 million for a Thousand Oaks palace". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 17 February 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  17. Allah, Sha Be (21 November 2022). "The Source |ATL Rapper J Money Shot And Robbed While In Korean Prince's Rolls Royce". The Source. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  18. Nevares, Gabriel Bras (20 November 2022). "J Money Shot And Robbed In Korean Prince's Rolls-Royce". HotNewHipHop. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  19. "Man shot and robbed of Rolex, jewelry near Koreatown; victim's Rolls-Royce linked to Korean prince". ABC7. 19 November 2022. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  20. "@JermaineMiller_". Twitter. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
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