Livedoor Co. shareholders plan to sue former President Takafumi Horie and other former top executives around September, their lawyers said Tuesday.
The shareholders say they have suffered huge losses in the wake of allegations the Livedoor group was involved in accounting fraud, the lawyers said.
The investors will also demand damages from Livedoor and Livedoor Marketing Co. through a lawsuit to be filed with the Tokyo District Court.
"Those who bought Livedoor shares in the belief that a stock market is fair are victims who must be rescued," said Chohei Yonekawa, who heads a group of lawyers helping the shareholders.
The legal team consists of about 40 lawyers from across the nation who specialize in financial and consumer affairs.
The Livedoor shareholders likely to be eligible to participate in the damages suit are those who lost money on Livedoor or Livedoor Marketing shares that were purchased based on falsified financial information, the lawyers said.
Yonekawa, speaking at a news conference in Tokyo, said the lawyers are considering looking into what the former executives' responsibilities were under civil law.
The legal group said they will study the investment conditions of Livedoor shareholders and watch the course of a Tokyo prosecutors' probe.
Livedoor's shareholders totaled about 220,000 as of the end of September.
Stocks of Livedoor group firms have plummeted since the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office raided Livedoor offices in mid-January over suspected securities law violations.
