OSAKA -- Prosecutors demanded a 10-year prison term Tuesday for a former president of now-defunct Itoman Co. and a 12-year term for one of its former executive directors, for alleged aggravated breach of trust.
The two defendants involved are former Itoman President Yoshihiko Kawamura, 74, and former Itoman Executive Director Suemitsu Ito, 53.
During an Osaka District Court session, prosecution authorities said Kawamura's privatization of the company, a move that caused huge losses and eventually left a large number of its employees jobless, brought great trouble to shareholders and firms with ties with the defunct trading house.
They also said Ito showed no remorse for a crime they characterized as extremely egocentric, and attempted to pass blame for it on to other people.
According to the indictment, Kawamura and Ito had the trading house provide 23 billion yen in loans to Ito in April 1990 under the pretext of financing the development a golf course in Gifu Prefecture, which had not obtained official approval for the development. The defendants failed to get sufficient security for the loan, thus causing Itoman a 23 billion yen loss.
Kawamura and Ito are also charged with having Itoman loan 20 billion yen to Ho Yong Chung, 51, a real estate company president, under the false pretext of constructing a golf course in Kagoshima Prefecture between April and May 1990. The company took a 14.6 billion yen loss on the loan.
Defendant Ho has been out of sight since disappearing in October last year, though he is still on trial.