Asahi: Supreme Court acquits 3 ex-LTCB execs
The Supreme Court on Friday absolved three former top executives of the failed Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan (LTCB) of all criminal and civil responsibility for actions they took before the institution went belly up in 1998. The court's Second Petty Bench overturned lower court rulings that found the former president and two former vice presidents guilty of filing false financial statements and allowing inappropriate dividends to be paid out. Katsunobu Onogi, 72 [above], Masami Suda, 68, and Yoshiharu Suzuki, 71, were given suspended sentences by those courts for underreporting losses on the bank's financial statements for the fiscal year ended March 1998. The LTCB was not generating profits at the time. In addition, the Second Petty Bench rejected an appeal by the Resolution and Collection Corp. for damages in a civil lawsuit against seven former LTCB executives, including the three who were involved in the criminal case...The latest ruling could also affect the verdict in a case now also before the Supreme Court involving former executives of the failed Nippon Credit Bank. Three former executives at that bank were found guilty by district and high courts. The LTCB was temporarily brought under state control after it went bankrupt in 1998. It was reincarnated as Shinsei Bank in 2000..."In some sense, the former executives of LTCB became scapegoats," said Kazuhito Ikeo, an economics professor at Keio University. "However, the verdict will probably not be readily accepted by taxpayers since it does not state who was actually responsible for the mess"...more...
