Legal liability of shareholders for false name registration | Enterprise risk control
Pseudonym registration and pseudonym registration are similar concepts. In practice, both of them are likely to cause disputes over the qualification of shareholders. Name registration, also known as equity holding, refers to the actual investor and the nominal shareholder reached an agreement, the actual investor and enjoy the investment rights and interests, and the nominal shareholder is registered externally. Compared with the registration of borrowed names, there is no agreement in the registration of false names, and the perpetrators of false name registration often steal the name of others to register the company, which will violate the legitimate rights and interests of the registered journalist. This paper focuses on the reasons for the registration of shareholders' false names, the relief of the rights of the registered shareholders and the legal responsibility of the false shareholders, so as to guide enterprises to prevent the risk of such disputes.
一、Reasons for the occurrence of false name registration of shareholders
1. The fraudulent registration actor intends to evade legal responsibility. In the case of false name registration, the main circumstances of false name registration include that the perpetrator of false name registration cannot become the shareholder of the company because of his special status, evading the responsibility of shareholder investment, evading the debt of the company, etc. No matter what the reason, the false name registration actor in the establishment of the company is to avoid their own legal responsibility and use the identity of others to register.
2. The formal review mechanism of the company registration authority lays hidden dangers for the registration of false names. In recent years, with the simplification and reform of the registration system of various market entities, the examination of application materials by the company registration authority has also been transformed from a strict examination and approval system to a relaxed form of examination, that is, the company registration authority only reviews whether the application materials are complete and whether they comply with the statutory form, but does not review the specific content of the documents. On the one hand, the simplified reform of the company registration system has increased the vitality of the market economy by relaxing the entry conditions, and on the other hand, it has also left hidden dangers for the fraudulent registration of others.
3. The company registration agency neglects to perform its examination duties to provide opportunities for the registration of false names. Due to the professional division of labor of company registration and the unified investment attraction of the park, most companies entrust the third-party company registration agency to handle the company registration in practice. When acting as an agent for company registration, some company registration agencies only accept identity documents in form without authenticity and consistency review, which provides false materials for fake registration actors to obtain opportunities for company registration.
二、Rights relief for those who are registered under false names
1. Right relief through administrative channels. One is to directly request the company registration authority to cancel the registration of false names. In order to safeguard the authority of commercial registration and the results of the reform of "Regulatory services", the State Administration for Market Regulation and Administration issued the Guiding Opinions on Revoking the Registration of Companies Using the Identity Information of Others on June 28, 2019, requiring market supervision departments at all levels to actively respond to the response of the people responsible for revoking the registration of false names. Therefore, after the discovery of being registered as a shareholder of the company, the most direct and simple right remedy is to apply to the company registration authority for cancellation of the registration of the false name, and the registration will be revoked according to law if the registration authority finds that the false name registration is established. The second is to file an administrative lawsuit with the people's court. After discovering the false name registration, the person registered under the false name may either request the company registration authority to cancel the false name registration, file an administrative lawsuit against the company registration authority for failing to act or refusing to cancel the false name registration, or directly request the people's court to cancel the false name registration on the ground that the registration is false.
2. Civil rights relief. First, take the initiative to file a civil lawsuit with the people's court. After finding that it has been registered under a false name, the right holder can actively file a civil lawsuit with the people, request to confirm that it does not have the shareholder qualification, confirm that the company registration document is invalid, ask the false name registration actor to stop the infringement, etc., and ask the company registration authority to cooperate with the cancellation of the company registration or change the registration after obtaining the effective legal document of the people's court. The second is the direct exemption from liability in litigation. In judicial practice, a considerable number of registered shareholders under false names only learn of the fact of registration under false names when the creditors of the company require them to assume responsibility for the debts of the company as shareholders. In this case, the registered shareholders under false names can take the initiative to file a lawsuit with the people's court to confirm that they are not qualified as shareholders. It is also possible to obtain a direct exemption from liability by fully proving the facts of false registration in the case against which the creditor claims its rights.
3. Right relief through criminal channels. In the case of false name registration, there are some cases accompanied by fraud, falsification and trading of identity documents, forged seals and other criminal acts, if the existence of fraudulent registration is verified, the false name registration reporter can also request the company registration authority to revoke registration or change registration with relevant legal documents.
三、Legal liability of false shareholders
In order to solve the problem of attribution of liability for pseudonym registration, the Supreme People's Court issued the Provisions on Several Issues concerning the Application of the Company Law of the People's Republic of China (III) (Interpretation [2014] No. 2), which stipulates in article 28 that "where a person makes capital contribution in the name of another person and registers the other person as a shareholder in the company registration authority, the perpetrator of the pseudonym registration shall bear the corresponding responsibility; Where the company, other shareholders or creditors of the company request a shareholder registered in a false name to bear the liability for making up the capital contribution or to pay compensation for the insolvent part of the company's debts on the ground of failing to perform the obligation of capital contribution, the people's court shall not support it." According to the provisions of this article, for the registration of the false name of the journalist, after proving the fact of the false name registration, the ultimate responsibility shall be borne by the false name registration actor.
Shareholders are the owners of an enterprise, who have rights and obligations to the company. Scientific and rigorous shareholder management system is an important aspect of corporate compliance. Hillhouse Law Firm will give full play to its professional advantages and effectively help enterprises prevent relevant legal risks; We will also provide enterprises with more forms and more abundant legal service projects according to the development of the industry and the actual situation of enterprises, and guide enterprises to make scientific decisions and standardize development.