이 기사는 2021년 11월 17일 08:06 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Shin Chang-jae, chief executive of Kyobo Life Insurance, may appear in court to testify himself in the case against financial investors in the South Korean insurer and individuals from Deloitte Anjin, as some of the witnesses gave different testimonies.

At issue in the sixth hearing last Friday was whether Shin was involved in an attempt to alter Deloitte Anjin’s report on the insurance company’s stock valuation in favor of himself.

In 2012, Shin sold part of his shares in Kyobo Life to a consortium consisting of Affinity Equity, IMM Private Equity, Baring Private Equity Asia and Singapore’s GIC. The shareholder agreement included put options that enable the investors to sell their stakes to Shin if the insurer failed to go public by 2015.

Kyobo Life remained as a private company beyond the deadline, prompting the investors to exercise the put options in October 2018 to sell their shares at 409,000 won per share based on the valuation by Deloitte Anjin. Shin refused to buy back the shares, and in January this year, Seoul prosecutors indicted officials from the investor group and individuals from Deloitte Anjin for allegedly mispricing shares subject to the put options.

In the latest hearing, Yun Your-hyun, Kyobo Life’s chief executive, and Cho Dae-gyu, the company’s executive director, appeared as witnesses. A lawyer representing the defendants asked them questions about whether Shin was involved in the overall process of reviewing the valuation report.

Cho testified that he asked an accountant at Daejoo Accounting in 2019 to evaluate the report originally prepared by Deloitte Anjin but did not clearly recall other details.

When asked by the lawyer if he helps Shin with personal matters – given that the agreement subject to the dispute is between Shin and the investors – Cho answered that his action at the time was done on his own, not for Shin.

Following Cho’s testimony, the lawyer for the defendants pointed out that his statement was inconsistent with what Daejoo Accounting’s accountant said. Daejoo Accounting’s accountant earlier testified that he was directly asked by Shin to review Deloitte Anjin’s report.

In a cross-examination of Yun, the lawyer presented a letter sent by Kyobo Life to Deloitte Global as evidence. The insurer said in the letter that it would take legal action unless the US firm took action to have its Korea unit revise the valuation of the company’s shares.

Yun testified that he made the final decision on filing a complaint against Deloitte Anjin with the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, adding that he did not discuss the matter with Shin before and after the decision because their roles and authorities are separated.

The lawyer for the defendants argued that Kyobo Life is abusing legal procedures while the company takes no action against Shin, who is responsible for the dispute over the agreement with the investors, and also contended that Shin needs to be examined due to different testimonies from witnesses.

The court accepted the lawyer’s argument on condition that Shin’s attendance in court is not mandatory and the lawyer’s cross-examination will be limited to two hours. (Reporting by Ha-na Suh)