Billionaire developer pleads guilty to insider trading
Railways and hotel magnate Yoshiaki Tsutsumi today pleaded guilty to charges of insider trading and falsifying financial records at the opening of his trial in Tokyo.
The bespectacled Tsutsumi, 71, once listed by Forbes as the world’s richest man, appeared in the dock at the Tokyo District Court wearing a dark business suit.
The trial of Tsutsumi, former chairman of Seibu Railway Co and one-time chief of Japan’s Olympic committee, underlines the nation’s moves toward greater corporate accountability.
Over the decades of Japan’s post-war modernisation, he was revered as a charismatic billionaire who made his fortune on a nationwide hotel chain, major railway and resort development.
Prosecutors allege Tsutsumi conspired with several executives to falsify Seibu Railway’s 2003 financial statement, putting the stake of Kokudo Corp, his privately owned company, in the railway far lower than actual numbers.
Having a handful of top executives owning too much was a violation of Tokyo Stock Exchange rules. Seibu earlier acknowledged the deception, and the stock exchange delisted the company in December.
Prosecutors also say Tsutsumi was involved in insider trading to sell Seibu Railway shares.
Tsutsumi resigned as chairman last year to take responsibility for a separate racketeer scandal involving other executives.
