A Japanese court on Friday fined the disgraced Internet firm Livedoor Co 280 million yen (2.4 million dollars) for falsifying its earnings, a court official said. The Tokyo District Court's latest punishment follows the conviction of Livedoor founder Takafumi Horie and four other executives for tampering with the company's earning reports to conceal a loss.
"The defendant (Livedoor Co) sought corporate profit by betraying investors," presiding judge Toshiyuki Kosaka said according to a Jiji Press report. "The case was a vicious crime in which the management took a leading role," the judge said. Kozo Hiramatsu, the current president of Livedoor, said the firm had no plans to appeal the ruling. "We take the court ruling seriously and renew our sincere apologies to people related to the case," he told reporters.
The same court also convicted two accountants earlier Friday for their role in the financial scandal at the once-high flying Internet firm. The Tokyo District Court sentenced Taishin Hisano, 42, to 10 months in jail and gave Motoshi Kobayashi, 52, a one year suspended prison term for colluding with former Livedoor executives to conceal losses at the company. The pair, who worked for now-defunct auditing firm Koyo and Co, have both maintained their innocence.