Four former Livedoor executives sentenced

The former chief financial officer of Japanese Internet services firm Livedoor was found guilty of inflating earnings reports and sentenced to 20 months in jail on Thursday, while three other former executives were handed suspended sentences.

The Tokyo District Court made the ruling nearly a week after sentencing founder and former CEO Takafumi Horie, 34, to two and a half years in prison for violating securities laws in a case widely called the Enron of Japan, in reference to the U.S. company that declared bankruptcy in 2001 due to widespread accounting fraud.

Ryoji Miyauchi, 39, the former CFO, had already admitted to cooking the books at Livedoor, and pled guilty to charges. Evidence he provided to the courts was instrumental in the verdict against Horie.

The former financial officer turned pale when the judge announced his incarceration, and immediately appealed the sentence. Some local media suggested that his sentence was too harsh considering his cooperation in the case.

Judge Toshiyuki Kosaka said Miyauchi was the top financial officer for Livedoor and that he was “deeply involved in conducting and scheming the acts of crime, across the board.”

“Miyauchi’s criminal responsibility is heavier than the other defendants,” said Kosaka, as he read the sentences aloud.

The other three defendants were all handed suspend sentences, meaning they won’t serve jail time unless they commit another crime. Fumito Okamoto, 39, a former director, and Osanari Nakamura, 39, former operating officer were both given a suspended prison term of one and a half years. Fumito Kumagai, 29, former representative director, was given a suspended prison term of one year. 

The former executives, for the most part, admitted to manipulating and inflating Livedoor’s value, which deceived investors. Kosaka said testimony by Miyauchi and other former executives were “consistent” and “reliable” in the case against Horie.

The court found that the former executives set up several dummy funds that had nothing to do with Livedoor’s business, and said they inflated Livedoor’s profits by more than ¥5 billion during the year through September 2004.

The crime committed by Livedoor executives “shakes the foundation of the information disclosure rules set [by the Securities and Exchange Law,]” said Kosaka. Not abiding by the rules harmed the fairness of the stock market and was an “extremely malicious act of crime,” he added.

Individual shareholders are suing Horie and Livedoor for damages. Experts say the guilty verdicts for the five Livedoor executives will likely help their case.

Many private investors who had bet on Livedoor stocks saw their life savings evaporate as Livedoor shares took a nose dive last year. Horie was arrested just over a year ago and his company was delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange last April.

Although Horie continues to plead his innocence and denies statements by Miyauchi and others, the judge said Livedoor’s accounting fraud was impossible to pull off without Horie’s approval. Horie was released shortly after his trial last Friday on bail of  ¥500 million ($4.3 million). His defense has appealed the verdict.

Since his release, Horie has appeared on several Japanese TV programs, disputing the charges against him, particularly the prison term handed down by the Tokyo District Court.

Horie is said to have received a harsher sentence compared to the others because he is showing no remorse and has not apologized for the wrongdoings.

By contrast, Miyauchi made an apology in front of the court before his verdict was read. “If given the chance, I’d like to give something back to the people I’ve troubled,” Miyauchi said.

The prosecution was asking for a two and a half year prison sentence for Miyauchi and an 18-month prison sentence for each of the other three.

Horie founded Livedoor over a decade ago as a Web consultancy and developed it into an Internet service provider with a popular portal and numerous other businesses. Over time, the company pulled off several large takeovers. Horie gained fame by trying to buy a baseball team and run for public office with the backing of then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

(Additional reporting by pool reporters.)