Mr. Tatsuya Konoshita, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, said “JTA had previously submitted a winding-up application against GLH in Singapore, however instead of proceeding with winding-up GLH, a Provisional Liquidator (“PL”) was placed on GLH on 6 September 2023. The PL’s role is to preserve, review, and monitor the assets of GLH. The reason for the PL is due to JTA’s claims in relation to the 2^nd Investment Agreement between Group Lease PCL (Thailand) and JTA. We have litigation in Thailand about this same investment agreement and we will continue to fight in Thailand as we believe we have a strong argument to win besides we will appeal the case above. Also in Thailand, the Supreme Court accepted to hear our case where we claimed and had at one time won THB 685 million in damages from JTA and we have another case against JTA for more than THB 9 billion in damages which will have a hearing later this year. And also we will try to seek more compensation from JTA including this PL case. Any of past, present and further unlawful groundless actions by JTA which are the abuse of legal system will give us the ground for our current and future compensation demand.”

Mr. Riki Ishigami, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, stated, “We are happy that the winding-up process against GLH is paused at this time. I think it was clear that the winding-up process would likely get rejected and that is why it is now paused and instead a PL is put on GLH to watch over its assets. While we reject the idea that GLH needs a PL to monitor GLH’s assets as GLH Management has been abiding by the Singapore Injunction against GLH while the Singapore litigation is ongoing, we are grateful that the winding-up process has been paused so we can focus our energy on winning the main case there.”

Mr. Tatsuya Konoshita, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, said “Today we had our Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (“AGM”) and I am pleased that our shareholders accepted to have HLB Thailand (“HLB”) be our auditor for 2021, 2022, and 2023. This is a great step for us and shows the work and progress we have done to get to this point. Our team had been ready long time always to show our Financials to the Auditor as well as all investors and welcome HLB one of top 10 Audit firm in the world to cooperate. ”

Mr. Riki Ishigami, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, stated, “we would like to thank many of our shareholders for the patience and for approving HLB to be our auditor. We will work with them to resolve our auditor issues and publish our financial statements as soon as the proper audit work is completed. We are on the path to getting back to normal. While we cannot predict when our financial statements will be published, we do plan to work with HLB to make sure they do get published as soon as possible and on time when possible and to make sure our Company can trade again on the stock market. Also, we are pleased to update that both Executive Directors Kaname Hashimoto and Tatsuya Konoshita were both re-elected by our shareholders as was Independent Director and Audit Committee member Kanokrat Deemangmee. We will continue to work for the benefit of our shareholders.”

Mr. Tatsuya Konoshita, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, said “let’s review J Trust Asia Pte. Ltd. (“JTA”) actions over the past few years. In 2019, the Central Bankruptcy Court in Thailand dismissed JTA’s rehabilitation petition against GL. JTA kept appealing all the way to the Supreme Court, which finally dismissed JTA’s first petition. Then in April of this year, JTA submitted the second rehabilitation petition against GL. GL submitted the objection. JTA subsequently withdrew the petition, and the Court did not accept the petition on the ground of JTA’s withdrawal. Now JTA is attempting for the third time and the Court will hear their case. As our assets obviously exceed liabilities and it is clear that we are not insolvent, we will continue to fight against these false claims and use this malicious legal attack to get even more compensation in damages from JTA. I had stated at the beginning of the lawsuits in 2018 that we will fight and win, and at last make JTA pay. Our managements and I will state the same here today.”

Mr. Riki Ishigami, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, stated, “it is quite clear that JTA is using the Thai courts and courts across the world as a tool to try to harm GL into submission. The Thai court already clearly rejected the idea that GL is insolvent, all the way to the Supreme Court. JTA’s attempts to put GL into business rehabilitation had already failed 2 times in Thailand, but they again attempted this 3rd rehabilitation case. The intentions of JTA, its group and the management’s for keeping on taking such legal attacks against GL are ones that are malicious. They are using lawsuits for improper purpose other than the proper right to a trial. It is now more than clear that JTA had initiated the lawsuits by ‘Unclean Hands’. We are going to submit this fact to all the courts in all countries. We are now more confident than ever that the courts would understand JTA’s greedy intention, abuse of rights and malicious actions. We will win and we will continue to use our legal victories to make JTA pay us for damages.”

Mr. Tatsuya Konoshita, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, said “We received some excellent news in Cambodia that Civil Case no. 1657 has been struck out by the Phnom Penh Appeal Court. This is the highest court in Cambodia that can provide a summary judgement. Civil Case no. 1657 is a case where in November 2019, J trust Asia Pte Ltd. (“JTA”) originally claimed $229 million in damages from GL Finance Plc (“GLF” our Cambodian subsidiary) and Group Lease Holdings Ltd Plc (“GLH” our Singaporean subsidiary). JTA later reduced this amount to $154 million in damages, but the Court of Appeals unanimously struck out this case and this case has been completely dismissed. The litigation costs at the Phnom Penh Appeal Court shall be paid by JTA. Our next step is to win compensation for loss which had been caused by JT Group. Since there is no longer any case against either in Cambodia, we have gotten new grounds for asking for more compensation than before. The court ruled that GLF has no legal obligations nor any legal connectivity as a debtor to JTA and that any legal case against GLH did not have jurisdiction in Cambodia. It is now obvious that the claims by JT Group and the Management have no reasonable grounds. They just started such litigations in many countries even without any lawful argument. We had stated many times and now everyone can see how malicious JT Groups and its Management are. They started and still continue unreasonable lawsuits as they believe such are beneficial for them without caring if the lawsuit is valid or not.

We have said many times that JTA files lawsuits against our companies in multiple different countries even though Thailand is the only country where all litigation should take place. JTA uses other countries courts to try to harm GL and abuse the legal process when JTA cannot win in Thailand. This strike out shows that there was a lack of legal basis, lack of evidence, and JTA’s actions against the GL Group in Cambodia were based on frivolous claims. While we are happy for this win, we are even more happy to use this strike out as evidence JTA continues an unfounded international legal assault against GL and we will make JTA pay us and our shareholders for the damage they have caused our group.”

Mr. Riki Ishigami, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, stated, “we pleased that JTA’s claim against GL Group in Cambodia was thrown out of Court. Also we are further pleased that GLH Director Mitsuji Konoshita, who was also being sued by JTA in Cambodia, JTA claimed that Mitsuji committed fraud, however the Phnom Penh Court of 1^st Instance, the Phnom Penh Appeal Court, and finally on 10 May 2023, the Supreme Court of Cambodia all agreed that Mitsuji never committed fraud or any other crime in Cambodia. It is great news that current GLH Director and former GL CEO has been found not guilty of any crime at every court level in Cambodia all the way up to the Supreme Court. This is strong evidence that when courts hear our side of the story, the courts realize no fraud and no crime was committed. We are excitedly waiting for the judgement of the Thai trial expected in early 2024 to show our Thai shareholders and regulators that GL and Mitsuji did nothing wrong.  We will continue to use our legal victories to make JT Group and its Management pay us for damages.”

Mr. Tatsuya Konoshita, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, said “on 28 June 2023, Group Lease’s BOD approved the agenda and invitation to GL’s 2023 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM). It is going to be held on 31^st July which is on time to previously announced by SET. One of the key agenda items is Agenda 7 to consider approving is for HLB Audit (Thailand) to be our Company’s auditor. This is fantastic news as it means our Audit Committee has received a proposal from one of the SEC approved auditors. Our AC has reviewed the qualifications and experience of HLB and concluded that HLB would be a good auditor for our shareholders. HLB is a global network of independent advisory and accounting firms across 156 countries, with 1,128 offices and also with more than 40,000 employees and ranked at Number 10 in the Global ranking.

Now it is up to our shareholders to consider and approve HLB to be our auditor. We are very excited to have a SEC approved auditor work with us so that we can finalize and publish our 2021, 2022, and 2023 financial statements. It was very long not to have an Auditor even for 2021 until now which made our Financials disclosures llate which resulted in  GL stop trading. It was a painful period of more than 2 years. However we overcame those problems and now have an auditor ready to work with us. It will be an important step forward for our shareholders.”

Mr. Riki Ishigami, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, stated, “as I have previously said, this is in line with our plan to have a new auditor for years 2021 – 2023 audit our financial statements so that we can catch up on our public financial statements and eventually resume trading of our shares for our shareholder’s benefit. We are thrilled to have HLB review and audit our financial statements as we have always had nothing to hide and we have always been ready to be audited. Internally, we have maintained our quarterly and annual accounting processes and are ready to work quickly with HLB to publish our financial information so that the public can be informed on our progress and so that we can again meet the requirements for SET to allow trading of our shares. This is a great step in that direction and we are excited to keep you all updated on our progress.”

Mr. Tatsuya Konoshita, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, said “on 8 June 2023, the SET published an update about requirements for GL in order to remove the grounds for delisting. Basically the SET gave us time to fix the issues until Nov 2024^th which had been extended from the end of May 2023 and we are very pleased to get such permission from SET and gives us enough time to fix the issues. The only condition is that GL must arrange for the shareholders meeting to appoint the auditor for the years 2021 – 2023 within 31 July 2023. Once we accomplish that, the SET will provide GL with an extension on submitting all late financial statements until 14 November 2024.”

Mr. Riki Ishigami, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, stated, “This is in line with our plan to have a new auditor for years 2021 – 2023 audit our financial statements so that we can catch up on our public financial statements and eventually resume trading of our shares for our shareholder’s benefit. GL is already in deep discussion with an auditor and we strongly believe we will meet the SET’s 31 July 2023 deadline in regards to arranging a shareholders meeting. We look forward to providing the market with financial updates about our business again.”

Mr. Tatsuya Konoshita, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, said “last month in April, JTA submitted a petition for winding up Group Lease Holdings (GLH) in Singapore and also submitted a petition to put the Group Lease PCL (GL) into rehabilitation in Thailand. Thankfully, the Thai courts reviewed JTA’s petition against GL and did not accept the petition and ordered JTA to pay the expenses incurred.  We are hopeful that the judges in Singapore will find the same conclusion as in Thailand. I believe that JTA is trying to use the bankruptcy cases to damage GL and our companies and to satisfy their malicious and greedy desires and this is a typical abuse of legal system.”

Mr. Riki Ishigami, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, stated, “This is not the first time JTA has used these kind of tactics to harm our Company. In 2019, the Central Bankruptcy Court in Thailand dismissed JTA’s rehabilitation petition against GL and JTA kept appealing all the way to the Supreme Court which finally dismissed JTA’s claim. Now, JTA is trying again. We will continue to fight in both Thailand and Singapore against these false claims and again we are grateful to the Thai courts for dismissing JTA’s recent petition.”

Mr. Tatsuya Konoshita, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, said “earlier this month, the North Bangkok Municipal Court dismissed the criminal fraud case brought by J Trust Asia PTE (“JTA”) against the Company and former Directors, Mitsuji Konoshita and Mueno Tashiro. The case was dismissed because JTA’s complaint lacks prima-facie merits, meaning that the case is not well-grounded. We are pleased to report that we just found out that the courts even refused to allow JTA’s appeal against factual issues in regards to this case. ”

Mr. Riki Ishigami, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, stated, “this means the Company and former Directors are not guilty of the criminal charge of fraud. Therefore, it is factually final that the Company did not deceive JTA and the Thai courts are so convinced of this fact that they did not even allow JTA the opportunity to appeal. We continue to believe that this decision will foreshadow the court’s decision next year in our main legal case with JTA that its investments into GL could not be voidable, since it is now confirmed by Thai courts that there was no fraud committed by GL or its former Directors.  Also we believe these series of decisions would effect positively for us in many other cases world-wide against JTA including our respective claims for compensation and damages caused by JTA’s unreasonable legal actions with the amounts of 685,000,000 THB, 9,130,000,000 THB and 644,581,997.24 THB which are now on process in Thai courts. (Total 10,459,580,000 THB equivalent to roughly around 302.5 million USD)  

We appreciate our shareholders during these times. We continue to work for your benefit and we continue to achieve the best results we can in the legal system. We will continue to demand compensation for the damages they have caused the Company over these years.”

 

For more information, please contact

Sutisa Trikisyasopon / Amonchai Udomphot

Siam PR Consultant Co., Ltd.                                                   

Tel. 0-2693-7835 Ext. 25 / 21                                                                                       

Mobile. 098-996-2454 / 081-720-4573

Mr. Tatsuya Konoshita, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, revealed “on 8 February 2023, the Bangkok North Municipal Court had a hearing for pronouncement of the order of the criminal fraud case brought by J Trust Asia Pte. Ltd. (“JTA”) against the Company and former Directors, Mitsuji Konoshita and Muneo Tashiro. We are pleased to report that the court dismissed the case based on the reasoning that JTA’s complaint is not well-grounded which legally is called having no prima-facie merits. The court looked at and decided that because JTA’s investments in GL were made voluntarily and that JTA is a large and experienced investment company, then JTA should have known what was investing into when entering the investment agreements with GL. I believe the court considered that the investment by JTA should be considered under ‘the Principle of Self-Responsibility.’ As such, GL and our former Directors are not guilty of the criminal charge of fraud.”

Mr. Riki Ishigami, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, stated, “this is the same allegation as the case that JTA had brought to the Department of Special Investigation (“DSI”) and the DSI had subsequently issued a final non-prosecute order against GL and our former Directors. We are glad that both the DSI and the court came to the same conclusion that GL did not defraud JTA when JTA decided to invest into GL. We believe that this decision will foreshadow the court’s decision next year in our main legal case with JTA that its investments into GL could not be voidable, since there was no fraud committed by GL and its former Directors. 

We appreciate our shareholders during these times, we will come out stronger from this. We will continue to fight JTA and demand compensation for the damages they have caused our shareholders over these years.”

 

For more information, please contact

Sutisa Trikisyasopon / Amonchai Udomphot  

Siam PR Consultant Co., Ltd.                                             

Tel. 0-2693-7835 Ext. 21                                          

Mobile. 098-996-2454 / 081-720-4573

Mr. Tatsuya Konoshita, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited said “It is a good news for GL at all. In general, the Supreme Court rejects the vast majority of applications for leave of final appeal to the Supreme Court. The fact that the Supreme Court reviewed our application for leave of final appeal (along with the final appeal) and decided to grant us the leave of final appeal shows that the Supreme Court believes that there are critical issues that the Supreme Court wants to hear so that they may make a final judgement. The Supreme Court needed to hear our case first if they wanted to reverse the Appeal Court’s decision, so we are optimistic about our chances given that if they felt JTA’s arguments were correct, the Supreme Court could have just rejected our leave of final appeal and made the issue final that way.

On March 5, 2020, the Civil Court in Thailand ruled that that JTA acted in bad faith by filing the false rehabilitation petition against Group Lease in Thailand. The Court also ruled that JTA’s actions caused damages and ordered JTA to pay THB 685 million, including lawyer fees, to GL. After that judgement, JTA appealed and the Appeal Court ruled in their favor and concluded that JTA no longer needed to pay GL. We agreed with the Court of First Instance’s judgement and therefore GL applied for leave of final appeal to the Supreme Court for a final decision.

We are proud to share that the Supreme Court has granted us our leave of final appeal and will hear our case. This is a good chance for GL to get compensation from JTA for the damages which JTA had unlawfully caused from its world-wide litigation. Additionally, this Supreme Court order would give good influence on other ongoing litigations, including the second civil case that GL filed against JTA et al for compensation in the amount of THB 9,130 million and a criminal case against JTA and the directors which GL had initiated and has been working on now”

Mr. Riki Ishigami, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lease Public Company Limited, commented “Originally, GL took civil action against JTA due to JTA’s unjustified attempt to force GL into rehabilitation, even though it is so clear GL does not meet the standards for rehabilitation. On August 15, 2019, the Central Bankruptcy Court dismissed the JTA submitted rehabilitation petition against GL for the second time. The court looked at three factors when deciding to dismiss the case:

1. The amount of GL debt owed to JTA
2. The amount of GL’s assets compared to GL’s liabilities
3. The ability of GL to operate the business

Upon looking at those three factors, the court ruled that the amount that JTA claimed that GL owes JTA is unclear due JTA’s legal actions, GL has assets exceeding its liabilities and therefore is not insolvent, and finally that GL was able to operate the business as usual and therefore dismissed JTA’s petition.

We are pleased the Supreme Court has granted us our leave of final appeal and will hear our case. We appreciate all of our shareholders’ patience during this time and we will continue to fight for our shareholders.”