Seo

INTRODUCTION

Yung Ki Park and SC&P Resources, Inc., appeal from an order denying their motions to strike under Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16, the anti-SLAPP statute.1 Respondent Youngjin Seo sued Park individually and derivatively on behalf of SC&P, alleging that Park had defrauded Seo in recommending self-serving investments and, eventually, in taking over SC&P, which Seo had founded. Park and SC&P moved to strike certain new allegations of Seo’s third amended complaint, asserting that the newly added portions alleged protected activity as defined by the anti-SLAPP statute and Seo had no probability of prevailing because of the privilege afforded by Civil Code section 47. The trial court denied both motions, ruling that the new allegations did not involve protected activity. We affirm the order. The new allegations of the third amended complaint do not involve protected activity. They merely provide evidence to support Seo’s claim he was being wrongfully pushed out of his place in SC&P.

FACTS

Seo sued Park in February 2019 for taking over SC&P (which Seo incorporated in 2013) while defrauding him of millions of dollars through self-interested investment…