The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Heo Young Joong, a defendant in a high-profile corporate scandal that surfaced at the height of the economic bubble, judicial sources said Saturday.
The decision, reached Friday, came 14 years after Heo, 58, was arrested on suspicion of causing massive damage to now-defunct trading house Itoman Corp. by talking management into having the company purchase high-priced paintings.
The court also upheld Heo's conviction for evading 3 billion yen in corporate taxes in the fiscal year that ended in March 1990.
The ruling by the top court's No. 3 Petty Bench finalizes a sentence of seven years and six months in prison and a fine of 500 million yen.
Presiding Justice Kunio Hamada affirmed that Heo had committed conspiracy in aggravated breach of trust together with former Itoman President Yoshihiko Kawamura, 81, and former Itoman Managing Director Suemitsu Ito, 60, by causing the trading house to incur about 36 billion yen in losses in 1990, the sources said.
Hamada said Heo was fully aware that Itoman's purchase of the paintings at unduly high prices would cause losses to the trading company and that Heo and Ito were in a mutually dependent business relationship.
Kawamura and Ito have each appealed their prison sentences to the top court.
Heo pleaded not guilty in his trial, saying the transaction was a loan by his affiliate company to Itoman, with the paintings used as collateral.
The Osaka District Court issued the initial verdict, which was upheld by the Osaka High Court.