The Tokyo High Court upheld on Tuesday a five-year prison term for a former chairman of the failed credit union Tokyo Shogin who caused financial damage to the firm by repeatedly extending illegal loans to a Tokyo business group.
Kim Song Jung, 55, damaged the credit union by illegally extending 3.2 billion yen to a business group run by Masuo Taneda, 68, between 1999 and 2000. Taneda was also convicted.
The court also concluded that Kim embezzled about 87 million yen from the credit union, which mainly served pro-Seoul Korean residents in Japan, between 1995 and 2000.
In rejecting Kim's appeal against the 2004 Tokyo District Court verdict, presiding Judge Masaru Suda said, "The defendant bears a heavy responsibility, as he damaged the union by pursuing his own interests and by using a good amount of the embezzled money for private use."