p2pnet - rss feed: D-Day for Takafumi Horie
p2pnet.net News:- Today is D for Decision Day for Takafumi Horie, the man who started Livedoor Co and who’s accused of giving misleading information to shareholders with fears that "more problems may emerge".
Today he’ll find out what sentence the Tokyo District Court plans to impose on him.
Prosecutors wants him jailed for four years for, "massive accounting fraud and other securities law violations," says the Mainichi Daily News.
"Former dot-com star Takafumi Horie, who is fighting charges of cooking the books at his startup Livedoor Co., says the old-style bureaucratic power elite is targeting him for rocking the boat," says The Associated Press, going on:
"Horie, 34, accused prosecutors of concocting a false story in their determination to find defiant outsiders like him as ‘evil.’ During the trial, which began in September, prosecutors have outlined a complex scheme allegedly orchestrated by Horie of using ‘dummy’ companies to buy up shares to inflate the earnings of Livedoor, the Internet services company he founded in 1997."
"Once, while he was at the top of the world, Horie said that ‘even if you fail, the worst that you can end up with is zero’," said Time in January. "You can always reset’."
However, the story pointed out,, "No doubt he now realizes there is one result even worse than zero - and that’s jail."
Horie claimed he didn’t put his self-interests first when he was president at Livedoor,but, "the prosecutor said that he spent profits gained from selling stocks on trips with a woman." says the Mainicho Daily News.
" ‘He tried to expand the operations of the (Livedoor) group. He sought only for his company’s profits even though many investors in the stock market fell victim (to his financial misconduct),’ said the prosecutor."
If convicted, Horie faces up to five years inside and five million yen ($42,000) in fines, or both, says AP. "But a jail term in such a case would be harsh by Japanese standards. Defendants can speak to reporters during their trials in Japan because there is no jury trial here."
Meanwhile, "Still looking boyish but a bit more pensive than before his arrest, Horie said Wednesday he has no regrets about his past," says the story, adding:
"Already planning for the future, he is now looking to build a new business for consumer space travel and is working with several people to develop a rocket.
"If the American space shuttle is a giant truck, what we’re working on is a motorcycle," he said.
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
Also See:
misleading information - Japan’s Livedoor fiasco, January 21, 2006
Mainichi Daily News - Prosecutors demand Livedoor founder Horie spend 4 years behind bars for fraud, December 22, 2006
The Associated Press - Livedoor founder says he was targeted, December 21, 2006
Time - The Livedoor Scandal: Tribe versus Tribe, January 20, 2006
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