Japan's disgraced Internet mogul Takafumi Horie denied yesterday any knowledge of fraud at his once high-flying Livedoor firm and said that he had not been in total command of its activities.
"It's not true that I knew everything about the whole group," the former brash young entrepreneur said as he was questioned for the first time during his trial at the Tokyo District Court for alleged securities law violations.
"I was especially keen on the businesses which were losing money. There is no need to pay attention to businesses which have earned money," he said in a report by Jiji Press news agency.
The 34-year-old founder of Livedoor is accused of falsely reporting a pretax profit of ?5.03 billion (US$42.95 million) for the year to September 2004 to hide actual losses of ?310 million.
Horie said the first he knew of the prosecutors' investigation into the company was in December last year when he received a telephone call from a former operating officer of Livedoor.
"I didn't understand at all [what he was talking about]. I thought he'd gone mad," the defendant said.
Horie, who as Livedoor boss shunned suits and ties in favor of T-shirts, appeared in court in a dark blue jacket, white shirt and blue tie -- as he did at the start of the trial in September when he pleaded innocent to the charges.
News of the Livedoor probe in January sent the Tokyo stock market briefly into freefall, forcing Asia's largest bourse to close early for the first time ever as a flood of sell orders threatened to swamp the computer system.
Four other executives of the once high-flying Livedoor firm have already admitted to fraud allegations. However, Horie's case took longer to come to court because he has maintained his innocence.
A verdict in Horie's trial is expected sometime from early next year.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
STORM’S PATH: Kong-Rey could be the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in November since Gilda in 1967. Taitung-Green Island ferry services have been halted Tropical Storm Kong-rey is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon early today and could make landfall in Taitung County between late Thursday and early Friday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, Kong-Rey was 1,030km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the nation’s southernmost point, and was moving west at 7kph. The tropical storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126 kph, CWA data showed. After landing in Taitung, the eye of the storm is forecast to move into the Taiwan Strait through central Taiwan on Friday morning, the agency said. With the storm moving
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work