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Fuji TV set to sue Livedoor for 38 bil. yen(Kyodo News International (Tokyo) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Mar. 23--TOKYO -- Fuji Television Network Inc. plans to file a 38 billion yen ($322.26 million) damages suit against Livedoor Co. next week, source close to the matter said Friday. Fuji TV, one of Japan's largest private broadcasters, will claim it suffered losses in Livedoor shareholdings due to securities fraud on Livedoor's part, the sources said. The TV broadcaster had obtained Livedoor shares for 44 billion yen before selling them to Yasuhide Uno, the president of cable broadcaster Usen Corp., for only 9.5 billion yen. It is expected to seek the loss of 34.5 billion yen plus additional money as Livedoor had rejected Fuji TV's requests for compensation, they said. Fuji TV is to finalize the plan to file the suit at the Tokyo District Court after seeing the court's ruling later in the day on the Internet and financial services firm as an entity over accounting fraud and other securities law charges. The broadcaster has said it incurred huge losses on sharp declines in Livedoor share prices after prosecutors raided the Net firm in January 2006. Livedoor was delisted by the Tokyo Stock Exchange in April the same year after the accounting scandal surfaced. About 3,600 individual investors have already filed suits for a total of some 23 billion yen in damages and trust banks entrusted by investors with managing their stocks have also brought cases to court. Given Fuji TV's move, other institutional investors may follow suit. Meanwhile, Livedoor also looks set to file a damages suit against its former management. Livedoor President Kozo Hiramatsu is to hold a news conference after the district court's judgment later in the day. The district court earlier found Livedoor group founder and former President Takafumi Horie and other former top executives guilty of profit padding and stock market manipulation. The court said they conspired to pad the group's pretax balance by reporting about 5.3 billion yen in profit for the year through September 2004 when it should have stated a 300 million yen loss, by inappropriately posting profits of 3.7 billion yen from sales of its own stock and booking 1.6 billion yen in profits from false business transactions by two companies it had planned to buy. It also acknowledged the once highest-flying group spread false information on the acquisition of a publisher in 2004 to raise the stock price. To see more of Kyodo News International, go to http://www.kyodonews.com Copyright (c) 2007, Kyodo News International, Tokyo Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |