Tokyo Barrister: Start the law firm bankruptcy

Chapter 850 Case Strategy

Kitahara did not give a direct answer to Miyakawa's question.

On the contrary, Kitahara said:

"The financial difficulties of Nippon Steel are probably much more difficult than we imagined. Debt certificates like the ones issued by Nippon Steel are probably off-balance sheet and not recorded in the balance sheet at all."

"If we want to win, we first need to find out the general situation of Nippon Steel." Kitahara then looked at Miyakawa, "We must know how many people are eyeing this piece of meat of Nippon Steel."

Niwa recalled the information about the research and development company.

Although Nippon Steel is in financial difficulties, it can easily pay large amounts of research and development expenses.

How many people are there in this company who want to put the company's property into their own pockets?

"Specifically, we have to sort out how many categories Nippon Steel's creditors are roughly divided into," Kitahara said. "There are banks, bondholders, preferred shareholders, suppliers, workshop contractors, and labor unions. We need to form a basic estimate of the potential size of their claims against Nippon Steel."

"This is a huge amount of work," Niwa sighed. "I can only find information one by one from the company's financial statements and those hundreds of pages of notes, and deduce and restore it."

"In addition to what I just said -" Kitahara continued, "the tax bureau and the city hall may also be creditors of Nippon Steel. There is no need to mention the tax bureau. The city hall may have two pieces of creditors. One is the subsidy that needs to be recovered, and the other is the factory land of Nippon Steel, which may be taken back."

In just a few paragraphs, Kitahara has already outlined the main antagonist in this case.

From banks to bondholders, from suppliers to city halls.

These institutions and groups all come to mind.

Just by listening to this, Niwa and Miyakawa felt a lot of pressure. Just imagine, if you want to recover the debt, you have to face such a large group of people.

"So what should Shiga, as the workshop contractor, do?" Niwa couldn't help but ask.

"The reason is simple. Those who are barefoot are not afraid of those who wear shoes." Beiyuan couldn't help but sneer.

"What does this mean?"

"Among all these groups," Kitahara said, "you will find that the workshop contractors are the only group that is not afraid of Nippon Steel going into bankruptcy liquidation. Not to mention the banks, bondholders, and preferred shareholders. If Nippon Steel goes into bankruptcy liquidation, they are the ones whose assets will suffer the most damage."

"The unions also don't want to see Nippon Steel go bankrupt. After all, if Nippon Steel goes bankrupt, tens of thousands of industrial workers will lose their jobs, and I believe the unions won't be happy to see that either."

"As for the tax bureau and the city hall, let alone the city hall, Nippon Steel is able to survive because it is generating revenue for the company every day."

"Among all the groups, only the workshop contractors don't care." Kitahara continued, "Nippon Steel's collapse means that they can break free from the distorted supply chain system. As for the debt claims, the workshop contractors had expected that their debt claims would be difficult to realize. Whether Nippon Steel goes bankrupt or not, it will have little impact on their debt claims."

"So, the workshop contractor represented by Shiga is the barefoot party. And everyone else at this table is the one wearing shoes. This is where we may have a chance to win."

This young male lawyer gave a complex analysis of the entire case.

In just a moment, the idea was neatly presented before him.

"Furthermore, there are two things we need to do in this case."

"Which two?" Miyakawa asked immediately.

"The first thing is the creditors I just listed." Beiyuan said, "We must find a way to snatch some of the shares that belong to our clients from them."

"The second thing is that we need to find the corrupt officials in Nippon Steel." Kitahara said, "Nippon Steel has become what it is today, there must be someone inside who has committed embezzlement. So, who are the people who have committed embezzlement? Which members of the management team are they? We need to find them. Only by finding them can we find the truly valuable assets. Kitahara listed these two goals.

Niwa, who was standing nearby, couldn't help but once again marvel at the lawyer's clear mind.

The steps to be taken in this case are listed so clearly.

Niwa had done something similar in his past career as a journalist.

For example, tracking financial fraud by listed companies or scandals in which listed companies default on payments to suppliers.

She has also learned from many seniors in the industry.

But, to be honest, what Kitahara said here today has far surpassed the level of a senior financial investigative reporter. It is hard to imagine that this is something that someone of the same age as him can do.

"Next, we have to wait for the results of Shiga." Kitahara said, "All this is based on the premise that there are enough workshop contractors willing to join our team. If there are not enough contractors and we cannot put pressure on Nippon Steel, then the plan I talked about here today will be useless."

"If we finally have enough contractors..." Miyakawa asked, "What's the first thing we should do?"

"It's simple, just a test." Kitahara answered with a relaxed expression.

His demeanor and tone of voice indicated that the case before him was not a completely difficult one.

"How do we test it?" Niwa asked further.

"Don't you want to think about it yourself?" Kitahara said with a smile.

"Send a lawyer's letter to Nippon Steel on behalf of the contractor?" Miyakawa said.

Beiyuan shook his head. "Of course we will do this. But obviously, it cannot achieve the purpose of testing."

Kitahara's words immediately aroused the curiosity of the two women present.

Niwa and Miyagawa discussed possible strategies one after another.

They racked their brains and came up with every method they could think of.

However, every strategy that was proposed was denied by Kitahara.

Niwa and Miyagawa are both women who are somewhat competitive.

Hearing Kitahara's denial, they couldn't help but become more curious and determined.

"What on earth is it?" Miyakawa couldn't help but ask at last.

"Don't you plan to figure it out on your own?" Kitahara smiled.

Niwa held her chin and thought for a while. Although she had extensive experience in financial investigation reports, she still couldn't think of Kitahara's next strategy.

"Well, I'll give you a hint." Kitahara swung his office chair, "Fortresses are often breached from the inside."

(End of this chapter)