Eastar Holdings Loses First Trial in Lawsuit Claiming Delivery of 400,000 Shares

Court: "Insufficient Evidence to Recognize Malice or Gross Negligence"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] Eastar Holdings, which filed a civil lawsuit against KODI, a KOSDAQ-listed company, claiming that a lawyer secretly disposed of Eastar Airlines shares pledged as collateral, lost in the first trial.

The Seoul Southern District Court Civil Division 11 (Presiding Judge Lee Yoo-hyung) announced on the 20th that it ruled against the plaintiff in the stock delivery claim lawsuit filed by Eastar Holdings against KODI, demanding the return of 400,000 Eastar Airlines shares.

In November 2015, Eastar Holdings borrowed 8 billion KRW from a private equity fund using 771,000 Eastar Airlines shares as collateral. The collateral shares were entrusted to lawyer Park.

However, Lawyer Park sold 400,000 of these shares to KODI, where he was a director and chairman of the board, and KODI subsequently sold these shares to another party for about 4.2 billion KRW.

Eastar Holdings argued that KODI knew that Park had no authority to sell the shares, and that KODI’s purchase and subsequent resale of the shares were illegal, demanding that KODI return the 400,000 shares.

However, the court dismissed all of the plaintiff’s claims, stating, "There is insufficient evidence to recognize malice or gross negligence on the part of KODI in the process of purchasing the shares."

Meanwhile, Lawyer Park, who secretly sold Eastar Airlines shares without Eastar Holdings’ consent, is reportedly currently fleeing overseas.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.