The Tokyo District Court handed suspended prison terms Wednesday to three certified public accountants for conspiring to falsify Kanebo Ltd.'s earnings in fiscal 2001 and 2002 to cover up a 160 billion yen capital deficit.

The ruling effectively ensures that no one will do any prison time for one of the biggest accounting frauds in Japanese history.

Now-former accountant Kuniaki Sato, 64, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, while his colleagues, Kazutoshi Kanda, 56, and Seiichiro Tokumi, 59, were handed one-year terms. All sentences were suspended for three years.