Five former executives of the failed Tokyo Sowa Bank pleaded not guilty Thursday in their first trial hearing before the Tokyo District Court to charges of conspiring to falsely show that the bank had adequate capital reserves.
The five are Shoichi Osada, 78, the bank's founder and former chairman; former President Mizuho Kojima, 60; former Vice President Masatoshi Fukui, 56; and two former managing directors, Hiroyasu Ebisu, 57; and Tachiki Takahashi, 47.
According to the indictment, Osada and others lent 19 billion yen of the bank's assets to three companies via channels that included a third-party consumer finance firm in September 1997 and March 1998.