[Financial Specialist Attorney Success Case] Shareholders Who Filed an Application to Inspect and Copy the Accounting Books Against a Representative Director Who Committed Embezzlement Assisted to a Favorable Judgment

The clients who requested a consultation from the financial specialist attorney stated that they had learned of the representative director's embezzlement.

The clients informed the financial specialist attorney that they held some materials indicating that the representative director had used company funds at will.

The problem was that the decisive evidence to expose the representative director's embezzlement charge lay in the materials to be inspected through this application.

The representative director reportedly notified the clients, who were shareholders, of the closure of the company on the ground of deteriorating management. The director also shifted the responsibility for this onto the clients.

The clients wanted to ensure that the representative director would be punished. The help of a legal expert was needed for this, and the clients obtained the assistance of the financial specialist attorney.

In this case, the obligor was the representative director of a stock company, and the obligees were shareholders who together held 30% or more of the obligor's total issued shares.

The obligees, who suffered a significant financial loss from the obligor's unilateral notice of closure, came to discover the obligor's unlawful conduct, such as embezzlement.

Through detailed consultation with the client, Daeryun Law Firm assembled a team of finance attorneys composed of multiple experts with extensive experience in applications for injunctions to inspect and copy ledgers and other records, as well as in embezzlement cases.

Ahead of the suit on the merits, the Daeryun finance attorneys argued that this application had to be granted in order to secure key evidentiary materials.

In particular, the finance attorneys submitted Japanese statutory provisions as reference materials to establish the legitimacy of this lawsuit.

■ It was confirmed that the debtor had deceived the creditors and used company funds for personal purposes.

■ Because of the debtor's unlawful acts, the creditors suffered substantial financial losses.

■ Granting this application was necessary in order to establish the debtor's unlawful acts through the suit on the merits.

■ The creditors held materials reflecting the circumstances of the debtor's misuse of public funds.

The court accepted the argument of the Daeryun Law Firm finance attorneys and ruled that "the debtor shall, beginning three days after the date of service of this decision and for thirty days excluding Saturdays and public holidays, within the designated hours, allow the creditors and their authorized representatives (attorneys, certified public accountants, and tax accountants) to inspect and copy (including photography and copying onto portable storage devices) each of the ledgers and documents listed in the attached schedule, at the debtor's offices within its head office."

The clients suffered significant financial losses because of the debtor in this case. Had this application not been granted, they would not have been able to establish the debtor's unlawful acts.

With the assistance of Daeryun's finance attorneys, the clients were able to secure materials dating from the time the debtor committed the embezzlement.