The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal filed by a former managing director of the now-defunct trading house Itoman Corp. against his prison sentence for his part in a scam that caused the company to incur huge losses, judicial sources said Tuesday.
The decision upheld the 10-year prison sentence for Suemitsu Ito, 60, who was convicted of aggravated breach of trust in conspiring with Itoman's former president, Yoshihiko Kawamura, 81, and former real estate management company president, Heo Young Joong, 58.
The three were convicted of using Itoman's funds to lend money to golf course projects without sufficient collateral, and buying paintings at inflated prices from Heo's company in 1989 and 1990, causing the 110-year-old trading house to fail.
Ito caused losses to Itoman and others totaling more than 86 billion yen.
The three had appealed the prison sentences handed down in 2002 by the Osaka High Court, which in turn had rejected their appeals against lower court decisions.
The Supreme Court's No. 3 Petty Bench handed down the decision rejecting Ito's appeal Friday. The same petty bench also rejected on the same day an appeal filed by Heo, upholding his prison term of seven years and six months, and 500 million yen in fines.
Kawamura's appeal against a seven-year sentence is still pending before the Supreme Court.