The Supreme Court judged the case in favor of the court appointed bankruptcy trustee Masaaki Sawano of Kabushiki Kaisha Quin Ash, a bankrupt company. Kazunori Furukawa as a bankruptcy trustee representative and Yoshitaka Hagiwara, Shotaro Aoki and Kosuke Hasegawa as representatives for the bankruptcy trustee have also been engaged in this case.
The Supreme Court judged the case in favor of the court appointed bankruptcy trustee Masaaki Sawano of Kabushiki Kaisha Quin Ash, a bankrupt company.
Kazunori Furukawa as a bankruptcy trustee representative and Yoshitaka Hagiwara, Shotaro Aoki and Kosuke Hasegawa as representatives for the bankruptcy trustee have also been engaged in this case.
In this case, the bankruptcy trustee claimed for return of the profits from high-ranking members of the bankrupt company, who earned such profits through a pyramid scheme which is contrary to public order and morality (which falls under an endless claim investment scheme provided for in Article 2 of the Act for Prevention of Endless Claim Investment Scheme). The Tokyo District Court and the Tokyo High Court judged that the bankruptcy trustee may not claim for return of the profits pursuant to Article 708 of the Civil Code (Performance for Illegal Reasons) however the Supreme Court (3rd Petty Bench) overruled the Tokyo High Court decision and rendered an epoch-making judgment that based on the principle of good faith and mutual trust it is not permitted to refuse return of the paid dividend for the reason that such payment of the dividend falls under the performance for illegal reasons.
As for the full text of the judgment (in Japanese), please refer to the website of the Supreme Court.