The Tokyo High Court on Tuesday trimmed a year off the seven-year prison sentence handed to former real estate management boss Heo Young Joong for bilking an oil wholesaler out of nearly 18 billion yen in 2000.

The ruling will not affect an additional 7 1/2-year sentence Heo faces for another offense, a lawyer said.

The high court also cut the prison term given to Morikazu Tanaka, 62, a lawyer who worked in a prosecutor's office working with Heo, from four years to three.

The court proceedings were interrupted when Heo, 58, fainted while the ruling was being handed down on the appeal he and three others filed over the guilty verdict for their involvement in the fraud.

Heo had pleaded not guilty to swindling Ishibashi Sangyo out of 17.9 billion yen in exchange for an offer of shares in a construction company in 1996.

Ishibashi Sangyo officials testified that Heo deceived them by claiming he would use the firm's name only for the stock transactions and that the notes would not be collected.

Heo's lawyers told the high court their client had done nothing to make them "incorrectly believe" such a thing.

The district court ruled that Heo conspired with Tanaka and two executives of a company connected to Heo, to approach Ishibashi Sangyo and propose that the firm buy shares in Arai-Gumi Ltd., a midsize general contractor.

The three obtained promissory notes as payment for the shares, which were never delivered to Ishibashi Sangyo.

Heo vanished in 1997 during his trial on charges of causing massive losses to Itoman Corp. and was later caught in Tokyo.