Prosecutors were poised to arrest three former executives of UFJ Bank for allegedly obstructing a government inspection by destroying and altering documents in violation of the Banking Law, investigative sources said Tuesday.
Kazuyoshi Okazaki, 56, former UFJ Bank vice president, and former senior executives Sen Hayakawa, 55, and Masayuki Inaba, 51, owned up to their involvement during voluntary questioning by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office last month, the sources said.
But the prosecutors have decided to arrest them to further their investigation, they said.
The Financial Services Agency filed a criminal complaint against the bank and the three former executives with the prosecutors office on Oct. 7, saying they obstructed the FSA inspection in October 2003.
FSA officers found that cardboard boxes containing many documents on the bank's large-lot borrowers had been hidden during the inspection.
The officers also saw UFJ Bank employees ripping up some documents during the inspection.
The bank, a core unit of UFJ Holdings Inc., is known to have tampered with the minutes of executive meetings and materials indicating there were serious problems with the financial standing of major borrowers. The prosecutors have also found that Okazaki put his seal on the altered documents.
Sources said that members of a bank division for assessing major borrowers -- headed by Inaba -- was mainly responsible for moving the documents.
UFJ Bank admitted in July that it had obstructed the FSA inspection and fired the three executives. It also demoted and reprimanded 80 other bank officials and employees.
Under the Banking Law, individuals convicted of obstructing FSA inspections face a prison term of up to one year and fines of up to 3 million yen. A corporation could be fined up to 200 million yen.