AOMORI (Kyodo) A district court ordered five former Aomori prefectural housing corporation executives Tuesday to pay 42 million yen for failing to detect that an employee embezzled 1.4 billion yen over seven years.
In a civil lawsuit filed with the Aomori District Court, the public housing company sought a combined 900 million yen in damages from 19 former executives of Aomori Prefectural Housing Supply Public Corp. in connection with the embezzlement by Yuji Chida, 48, citing lax management.
All 19 executives denied responsibility, saying it was impossible to detect the embezzlement. The court said 14 of them were in no position to be aware of it.
Presiding Judge Norio Saiki reduced the amount of compensation by the five former executives from 29 million yen each to about 9 million yen because they were not "conspiring with Chida."
Chida is serving a 14-year prison term he received from the same court in 2002 for the embezzlement from October 1994 to October 2001.
He had confessed to giving about 1.1 billion yen of the money to his wife, Anita Alvarado, 33, who used part of it to build a luxurious residence in Chile.
Alvarado -- called "the Chilean geisha" by media in Chile -- attracted public attention after the incident came to light, including publishing an autobiography.
According to the media there, she is still legally married to Chida, though she is pregnant by her new boyfriend. During a settlement procedure with the housing corporation, Alvarado gave up her luxurious residence.
