Andrew Lee (born December 1983)[1] is an entrepreneur and the founder of the VPN service Private Internet Access, which started in 2010. Lee is, in media, known as "Crown Prince of Korea", as a pretender to the defunct throne of Joseon and the Korean Empire after being adopted by Yi Seok, a grandson of Emperor Gojong of Korea. He also founded a modern non-territorial autonomy Joseon Cybernation.
| Andrew Lee | |
|---|---|
| King of the Joseon Cybernation | |
| Reign | October 2018 – present |
| Predecessor | Yi Seok |
| Born | Indianapolis, Indiana, United States |
| Spouse | Nana Lee |
| House | House of Yi |
| Crown Prince of Korea (disputed) | |
| Reign | October 2018 – present |
| Predecessor | Yi Seok |
| Andrew Lee | |
| Hangul | 리 앤드류 |
|---|---|
| Revised Romanization | Ri Aendeuryu |
| McCune–Reischauer | Ri Aendŭryu |
Career
editIn 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.[2] 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.[3] 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.[4][5] Lee co-founded Mt. Gox Live, a bitcoin price tracker that was later acquired by the now-defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox.[6]
In 2017, Christel Dahlskjaer, then the head of staff at Freenode, incorporated and transferred ownership of Freenode Limited to Lee;[7] Dahlskjaer and Lee said the company was solely for funding the network and running the Freenode #live conferences.[8][9] 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.[9][10] A dispute over changes Lee imposed in 2021 resulted in all of Freenode's 20 to 30 staff members resigning.[8][9] This team went on to form a new network called Libera Chat.[8]
Joseon Cybernation
editAccording to Andrew Lee, Won Joon Lee, one of his distant relatives and grandson of a keeper of the House of Yi lineage, said that their clan was descended from Korean royalty; as the result, he was introduced to Yi Seok, a grandson of Emperor Gojong of Korea. Yi Seok is known as an active pretender to the former monarchy, but he has no male offspring, and he proposed adopting Andrew Lee as his heir.[11] In October 2018, Yi Seok 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.[12][13][14] Andrew Lee later took over Yi Seok’s status as the claimant to the Joseon throne in 2022. By March 2022, Lee announced the founding of a "non-territorial successor state to the Joseon Empire", a cloud-based, blockchain-backed kingdom with himself as its ruler. In June 2023, the government of Antigua and Barbuda released a statement confirming diplomatic relations with Joseon Cybernation.[11][15][16]
Personal life
editAndrew Lee was born in Indianapolis and raised in Carmel, a city in the Indianapolis metro area.[17][18] He enrolled in Purdue University and transferred to the University at Buffalo, but later dropped out to start working.[18]
In 2020, Lee and his family moved to a mansion in Hidden Valley, Ventura County, California.[17][19]
In the afternoon of 18 November, 2022, J-Money, driving a Rolls-Royce Phantom registered to Andrew Lee, was shot and robbed by 2 men in Koreatown, Los Angeles.[20][21] As of February 2023, the perpetrators have not been identified.[22] Andrew Lee, under the rapper name KingLee, appeared on J-Money's album titled "Dun It All".[23]
References
edit- ^ "Appointment of Director". Companies House. 11 April 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
- ^ 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 Yang, Jeff (3 February 2024). "The Fresh Prince of Joseon: How a Crypto Mogul Became a Korean Royal Heir—and Formed a Digital Kingdom". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 15 February 2024.
- ^ Mendoza, Ken (8 March 2021). "Real life K-drama: how did Andrew Lee go from tech entrepreneur to crown prince of Korea? Before he was named 'nominal emperor' Yi Seok's successor, he founded VPN service Private Internet Access – and made millions". Retrieved 11 September 2024.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Joseon" (PDF). Antigua. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
- ^ jordan (8 July 2023). "Antigua and Barbuda Establishes Diplomatic Relations with Cyberstate". Antigua News Room. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ 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.