Tokyo Barrister: Start the law firm bankruptcy

Chapter 872 The Three Barristers’ Counterattack

Lawyer Abe still seized on this point to launch a counterattack. He insisted on the fact that Nippon Steel's net assets were still positive. After all, for Kitahara, if they wanted to prove that Nippon Steel's net assets were negative, it would be impossible to prove unless they had an audit report.

All the judges on the stage looked at Kitahara.

The point raised by Abe is very important.

If I cannot effectively refute it, then I will undoubtedly lose today's hearing.

Kitahara still had a calm expression, as if Anbu's attack had not affected him. Kitahara continued, "There are two criteria for judging corporate bankruptcy: first, the company's assets are insufficient to cover its debts. Second, the company clearly lacks the ability to pay. As long as one of the two conditions is met, the bankruptcy procedure can be initiated."

The next second—

Kitahara suddenly took out several documents and displayed them in the court.

These documents are the balances of bank account deposits.

The details of about thirty bank accounts are listed.

Kitahara pointed at the documents and said loudly, "We have obtained the lawyer's investigation order and retrieved more than 300 major public accounts of Nippon Steel. The bank balance shows that the cash in more than 200 bank accounts added up is less than billion yen. And the interest that Nippon Steel has to pay every month is nearly billion yen. In other words, Nippon Steel's cash is only allowed to pay no more than two months' interest!"

"In addition, the current steel market is sluggish, and the union is expected to launch a strike that will last more than three months. Coupled with the impact of overseas tariff cuts, Nippon Steel will not be able to generate enough cash flow to pay interest in the future. These debts will snowball and eventually crush Nippon Steel."

"One of the legal effects of initiating bankruptcy proceedings is that the bankrupt company's debts will stop accruing interest," Kitahara said. "Are we going to sit back and watch the growing interest eventually devour all of Nippon Steel's assets until there is nothing left before we start bankruptcy proceedings?!"

In court——

Everyone was stunned by the cash balance of Nippon Steel Bank's account that Kitahara showed.

They say that when the tide goes out, you’ll find out who is swimming naked.

The amount of cash in these bank accounts undoubtedly shocked everyone.

First of all, the amount of cash is far less than the amount of cash shown in the financial statements.

This immediately reminds me of a method of falsifying financial statements:

That is, a large amount of cash is transferred in on the day the report is prepared, and then transferred out on the next day.

After all, financial statements only reflect a business's assets at a particular moment in time.

As long as the company's assets have that much cash at that moment, it will be fine.

At the same time, the amount of cash is no longer enough to pay sufficient interest.

People in the audience had no idea that Nippon Steel's financial situation was so tight. This seemed to explain why Nippon Steel issued a large number of so-called "A certificates" to delay payments to suppliers and contractors, and also outsourced a large number of its own workshops.

All this shows how desperate Nippon Steel is for cash.

Hearing the naked evidence presented by Kitahara, the senior executives of Nippon Steel in the audience naturally showed ugly faces. Fortunately, there were no reporters in the audience this time, otherwise, what kind of picture would this scene be exaggerated into? !

The three lawyers from Nippon Steel were stunned after seeing this.

They didn't expect that Kitahara actually retrieved Nippon Steel's public account information.

After thinking for a moment, Lawyer Yucheng quickly stood up and refuted:

"Chief Judge. The bank accounts selected by the opposing lawyer are biased. Nippon Steel is a group, and each company in the group has its own account. The project company also has its own bank account. The total number of public accounts is more than a thousand. However, the applicant only selected 30 accounts and intended to show that Nippon Steel's cash position is insufficient. This is obviously incorrect!"

He is indeed a great lawyer in the bankruptcy field.

In a situation that was extremely unfavorable to itself, it was still able to respond beautifully. At this time, Tanimoto also followed up and counterattacked, "The steel industry is an asset-intensive industry. Nippon Steel owns a large amount of industrial land, factories, and advanced steelmaking equipment. These are assets of great value. The other party's lawyer only used a few dozen bank accounts to explain the status of Nippon Steel's assets, which is seriously insufficient."

Abe also refuted: "Nippon Steel is currently formulating a new transformation plan for its business difficulties. The applicant did not consider Nippon Steel's ability to generate cash flow in the future. Nippon Steel also has many factory bases overseas, and the funds in many offshore accounts have not been counted by the applicant. The reason of this lawyer Kitahara is completely untenable!!"

Three big lawyers in the bankruptcy field launched a fierce counterattack at the same time.

"In that case, the court might as well find out the cash balance of all Nippon Steel's public accounts so far." Kitahara said directly: "This investigation should be easy to complete. By then, we can easily determine whether Nippon Steel has sufficient debt repayment ability!"

Hearing this, the three lawyers from Rigang couldn't help but become wary.

Just now, there was one point in Kitahara's argument that touched the judge.

That is, if bankruptcy proceedings are not initiated, the continuous flow of interest will completely submerge Nippon Steel's assets.

Judge Oono looked at the lawyers on both sides:

"This court has received the applicant's request to investigate the cash in Nippon Steel's account. After deliberation, we will make a decision. If there are no new opinions from the parties, this hearing will end."

Lawyers for both sides said they had no new comments to make.

The judge then declared:

The hearing for this bankruptcy proceeding is over.

As the judge left the court, the entire courtroom was suddenly filled with discussions.

After a long time, the crowd in the court gradually dispersed.

Today's hearing -

It is hard to say who will win or lose between Kitahara and the three lawyers from Nippon Steel.

This is also the most troublesome situation.

If the situation is a stalemate, the court will definitely tend not to initiate bankruptcy proceedings.

Kitahara, Miyagawa and Niwa were still left in the courtroom.

And there is Miyagawa's father Imanishi.

Imanishi stood up and said to Kitahara, "From today's hearing, it is estimated that the Tokyo High Court will not make a decision soon. Bankruptcy cases usually take a long time to hear. Considering the attitude of the court and the special nature of Nippon Steel, it is estimated that it will take at least one or two years for the court to decide whether to initiate bankruptcy."

What Imanishi said was not wrong.

Indeed, it is the most realistic situation.

Cases like bankruptcy are often long and drawn-out battles.

There is no way a quick victory can be achieved.

But at this moment, Kitahara smiled and said, "I have a way to have the Tokyo High Court initiate bankruptcy proceedings within two weeks."

(End of this chapter)