Too bad...
Miyauchi-san, who was regarded as the top contributor to the prosecutors' materializing of the Livedoor's case, was hard-hit with a
sentence without suspension.
The conclusion was predictable, as the same presiding judge had nailed
Horiemon last Friday.
In the reasons of judgment for
Horiemon,
Miyauchi-san was approved as the leading figure in executing the crime under Horiemon's final authorization.
Today's judgment was written under the same story.
He appealed right away along with Kumagai-san, another ex-Livedoor exec, who was given a suspended sentence.
Along with
Horiemon, they'll be guests to the higher court!
残念だね…
宮内さん。検察当局がライブドア事件を立件できた最大の功労者と見られてたのに。実刑判決でガツンとやられたね。
結論は予想できたものだ。同じ裁判長が金曜にホリエモンを断罪していたし。
ホリエモンの判決理由で、宮内さんはホリエモンの最終的な決済のもと、犯罪を実行していた中心人物と認定されていたからだ。
今日の判決は同じ筋書きのもと書かれたものだった。
宮内さんは別の元取締役で執行猶予が付いた熊谷さんとともにすぐに控訴した。
ホリエモンとともに高裁にご招待されることになりそうだ！
(article from Kyodo) （共同の記事：和訳は略）◆Livedoor's No. 2 man given prison term over accounting fraudTOKYO, March 22 KYODORyoji Miyauchi, former Livedoor Co. chief finance officer, was given a 20-month prison term Thursday as the Tokyo District Court judged the man once regarded as the closest aide to Livedoor's convicted founder Takafumi Horie was also involved in accounting fraud by the Internet and financial services firm.
The court also found three other former executives of the Livedoor group guilty and gave them suspended prison terms. Miyauchi, 39, appealed the ruling immediately.
Handing down the ruling, presiding judge Toshiyuki Kosaka said Miyauchi bore ''primary responsibility'' for a series of malpractices by Livedoor that breached the Securities and Exchange Law.
His responsibility matches that of Horie, the ruling said. ''It seems Mr. Miyauchi committed crime to live up to Mr. Horie's expectations.''
Although Miyauchi admitted to the charges, which also included stock market manipulation, and expressed remorse, a prison term without suspension was inevitable because of the significance of the role he played and the serious consequences of the incident, the ruling said.
Miyauchi, who had been released on bail of 50 million yen, was taken into custody immediately after the ruling but later released on bail of 80 million yen after his lawyers made a second bail application with the court. He paid the balance of 30 million yen.
Prosecutors had demanded two and a half years in prison for the former accountant.
The ruling came after Horie, who had denied all of the charges against him, was sentenced by the court on Friday to two and a half years in prison. He is appealing the ruling to the Tokyo High Court.
In a dramatic showdown, Miyauchi had made accusations against his former boss in the courtroom. He gave evidence in favor of the prosecutors, helping them to build their case against Horie.
The ruling said the executives conspired to pad the group's pretax balance by reporting about 5.3 billion yen ($45.08 million) in profit for the year through September 2004 when it should have stated a 300 million yen loss.
It said Livedoor set up dummy investment partnerships and inappropriately posted profits of 3.7 billion yen from sales of its own stock, and also booked 1.6 billion yen in profits from false business transactions by two companies it had planned to buy.
The three other former executives are former Representative Director Fumito Kumagai, 29, former Livedoor Finance Co. President Osanari Nakamura, 39, and former Livedoor Marketing Co. President Fumito Okamoto, 39.
The court sentenced Kumagai to one year in prison and Nakamura and Okamoto to one and a half years, respectively, all suspended for three years.
Kumagai immediately appealed the ruling.
Nakamura, Okamoto and Miyauchi were also convicted of spreading false information on the acquisition of a publisher in 2004 to raise the stock price of Livedoor Marketing, the group's advertising subsidiary.
Nakamura and Okamoto had admitted to all the charges against them while Kumagai had admitted to part of the charges. The prosecutors had demanded an 18-month prison term for each.==Kyodo
