Korean-American 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]
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
^
"Appointment of Director" .
Companies House . 11 April 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2021 .
^ 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 .
^
a
b
c
d 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 .
^
"Prince hopes to bring monarchy back to S.Korea" . Reuters . 19 January 2007. Retrieved 23 February 2023 .
^ 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 .
^ 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 .
^
"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 .
^
"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 .
^
"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 .
^
"PIA and freenode joining forces - freenode" . freenode.net .
Archived from the original on 20 May 2021. Retrieved 23 November 2019 .
^
a
b
c 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 .
^
a
b
c 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 .
^
"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 .
^
a
b 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 .
^ 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 .
^ 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 .
^ 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 .
^ Nevares, Gabriel Bras (20 November 2022).
"J Money Shot And Robbed In Korean Prince's Rolls-Royce" . HotNewHipHop . Retrieved 27 February 2023 .
^
"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 .
^
"@JermaineMiller_" . Twitter . Retrieved 27 February 2023 .