[
THE INVESTOR] A lower court has ordered cash-strapped STX Offshore & Shipbuilding to compensate its minority shareholders for losses they suffered due to its accounting fraud, court records showed on Jan. 25.
The Seoul Central District Court ruled in favor of 290 plaintiffs who sued the shipbuilder, former
STX Group Chairman Kang Duk-soo and the accounting firm Samjong KPMG, and ordered the defendants to pay a total of some 4.9 billion won (US$4.20 million) in damages. The court said Kang, who led the group from 2003 to 2014, created and announced forged business reports and financial statements.
“The plaintiffs bought STX Shipbuilding’s shares, trusting the audit report and suffered losses due to the fall in stock price,” said the court.
The 4.9 billion won is about 60 percent of the 7.78 billion won originally sought by the plaintiffs.
(
theinvestor@heraldcopr.com)