Bident and Bithumb Holdings Attend First Trial of Injunction Objection... "Urging a Fast and Wise Judgment"

Vidente, a KOSDAQ-listed company, announced on the 29th that it attended the first trial of the third-party objection lawsuit held last Friday morning at the Seoul Southern District Court, urging the court for a wise judgment, as it immediately filed an appeal and a third-party objection lawsuit against the court's compulsory seizure preservation order on the shares of the cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb Holdings currently held by the company.

As the plaintiff in the civil lawsuit, Vidente strongly appealed that due to this seizure preservation decision, which leaves little room for interpretation or dispute, Vidente and its affiliates have consecutively faced external auditors' disclaimers of opinion and trading suspension measures as listed companies, causing numerous minority shareholders to suffer serious financial and psychological damages.

Meanwhile, the court informed the defendant side, based on Supreme Court precedents, that while cancellation of the seizure preservation order on Bithumb Holdings shares held by Vidente may be permitted, refusal is not allowed, and also mentioned the need to review the facts regarding corporate ownership and acquisition timing of the Bithumb Holdings shares claimed by the plaintiff.

Earlier, in March, Vidente received a seizure preservation decision from the Seoul Southern District Court regarding the shares of the cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb Holdings held by the company. The reason was that the court judged the ownership of the Bithumb Holdings shares held by Vidente to belong to individual Kang Jong-hyun.

Following this seizure preservation order, Vidente and its affiliates Bucket Studio and Inbiogen received disclaimers of opinion on their audit reports from external auditors last year and were simultaneously subject to delisting. Subsequently, Vidente submitted an objection to the Korea Exchange and simultaneously filed an immediate appeal and a third-party objection lawsuit.

Vidente’s legal representative attending the court stated, “The Bithumb Holdings shares held by Vidente were company assets acquired sequentially from March 2017 to November 2019, before Kang Jong-hyun appeared,” adding, “Due to the defendant’s erroneous judgment, not only about 100,000 minority shareholders of Vidente but also minority shareholders of affiliated companies are suffering numerous damages.”

A Vidente official said, “Since the hearing date for the third-party objection lawsuit has been quickly set for 2:05 p.m. on September 15, we expect the court to make a wise decision, and immediately after the ruling, Vidente and its affiliates will swiftly move to normalize the company.”

Meanwhile, ahead of the September 15 ruling date, Vidente plans to communicate with minority shareholders through additional regular meetings regarding civil litigation issues and corporate normalization plans. The schedule for this meeting will be announced on Vidente’s website.