The Tokyo District Court sentenced a former president of Shinwa Bank in Nagasaki Prefecture to four years in prison Wednesday for misusing 6.5 billion yen in bank funds.
Former President Toru Tsujita, 74, was charged with conspiring to loan money to a Tokyo cosmetics company run by Yoshimasa Soejima, as well as to two other companies, from July 1993 to June 1995, with the full knowledge the money was not likely to be recovered.
Judge Hisaharu Yasui also sentenced Soejima, 56, who was implicated in the loan conspiracy at the Sasebo-based bank, to three years and eight months in prison.
Investigative sources had earlier said the spate of illegal loan granting began in 1993 when Tsujita loaned 1.2 billion yen to Soejima in return for his persuading mobsters to conceal an illicit affair in which Tsujita was involved.
The judge said: "The crime was committed by the top executive of a bank to cover up an affair. It was inexcusable for a bank president to ask a gang to settle any problems."
Tsujita has filed an appeal, his lawyers said. Both Tsujita and Soejima pleaded guilty in previous hearings.
Prosecutors had demanded a six-year prison term for Tsujita and a five-year term for Soejima.