An 84-year-old man and his son were arrested Tuesday for allegedly attempting to extort 100 million yen from consumer finance company Takefuji Corp., police said.
Tadao Sakashita, of Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, and his son, Tadaaki Sakashita, 56, of Toshima Ward, are denying the allegations, saying their actions were not an attempt to extort money out of the company.
Police have searched the homes of the two men, both executives of a company, and seized several boxes of documents they hope will yield evidence to prove their allegations.
According to investigators, the Sakashitas invited a Takefuji employee to their company April 8 and said someone had given them copies of internal Takefuji documents. They allegedly threatened to publish the documents, which they said would cause the Tokyo-based company's share price to tumble.
Takefuji is listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
On April 15, the two Sakashitas proposed during a phone call to Takefuji to negotiate a settlement with the person who had given them the documents in exchange for 100 million yen in cash.
The two were arrested before the money was paid.