Ex-Livedoor execs ordered to pay 7.6 bil. yen in compensation

TOKYO, May 21 Kyodo -
The Tokyo District Court on Thursday ordered Livedoor Co., now LDH Corp.,
Takafumi Horie, the founder and former president of Livedoor, and other former
Livedoor executives to pay about 7.63 billion yen in compensation for stock
losses they caused the company through securities law violations.
The court handed down the ruling on a damages suit of about 23 billion yen
filed by about 3,300 individual and corporate shareholders against the Internet
company and its former executives.
In handing down the ruling, the presiding judge, Koichi Namba, turned down the
damages claims by 17 shareholders. Many of the plaintiffs are expected to
appeal the ruling.
The ruling said Livedoor fabricated about 5.3 billion yen in profit when
reporting its consolidated earnings for the business year through September
2004, recognizing its responsibility for compensation for damages in its stock
price plunge following prosecutors' investigation into the company on suspicion
of violating the securities law by falsifying financial information about its
business.
On the basis of presumption under the law revised in 2004, the court figured
out damages of 585 yen per share by calculating differences between average
stock prices one month before and after Jan. 18, 2006, when the suspected
falsifying financial information was reported by media.
However, in consideration of other factors such as the arrest of Horie and
other Livedoor executives as well as Livedoor's delisting to contribute to the
plunge in stock prices, the court trimmed the figure by 385 yen to 200 yen to
calculate the damages.
The plaintiffs owned shares of Livedoor and its affiliated companies as of
January 2006 when prosecutors launched an investigation into the company.
They have filed the damages suits over five times between June 2006 and May
2007 against Livedoor, former Livedoor executives and auditing firms.
==Kyodo