Japanese multi-billionaire arrested for fraud
BBC News : Japanese mogul arrested for fraud
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One of Japan's best-known businessmen was arrested on Thursday on charges of falsifying shareholder information and selling shares based on the false data.
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi was once ranked as the world's richest man and ran a business spanning hotels, railways, construction and a baseball team.
His is the latest in a series of arrests of top executives in Japan over business scandals.
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There was a time when Mr Tsutsumi seemed untouchable.
Inheriting a large property business from his father in the 1960s, he became one of Japan's most powerful industrialists, with close connections to many of the country's leading politicians.
He used his wealth and influence to bring the Winter Olympic Games to Nagano in 1998.
But last year, he was forced to resign from all the posts he held in his business empire, after being accused of falsifying the share-ownership structure of Seibu Railways, one of his companies.
As you can see here, Tsutsumi was listed as Japan's 7th richest man in 2003, worth 2.5 billion US$ (about 300 billion yen).
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If he is charged with lying in financial statements, the penalty is five years in jail or up to five million yen.
What is 3 million yen for that guy ? Pocket money ?
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There have been corporate governance issues at some other Japanese companies too.
Last year, twelve managers from Mitsubishi Motors were charged with covering up safety defects in their vehicles and three executives from Japan's troubled UFJ bank were charged with concealing the extent of the bank's bad loans.
An endemic problem in Japan. It certainly isn't new - most of the above mentioned shenanighans started decades ago, and Japan has always had them (at least since Meiji, but undoubtedly before too). There are so many cases that haven't been discovered yet.
