Jitsuo Inagaki, a former state minister for Hokkaido and Okinawa development, was sentenced Monday to a suspended two-year prison term for illegally selling investment products that promised high returns and guaranteed the principal.
According to the Tokyo District Court, Inagaki, 77, conspired with partners to solicit a total of around 24 million yen from 24 investors, mainly elderly people, between May and December 2002 when he was head of an investment consultant company.
"The crime is cunning and malicious, in that in making solicitations, emphasis was made on the fact that the head of the company was a former state minister and a lawmaker, to gain people's trust," presiding Judge Mitsuaki Takayama said in handing down the sentence, which was suspended for five years.