Mizuho Bank has admitted that at least four of its executives, including two former deputy presidents, knew that it was lending money to underworld and other "antisocial" groups and that it neither stopped nor sought to hold management responsible.
Among the four, an unnamed former deputy president was aware of the illicit practice as far back as December 2010. The deputy president at that time, who had representative rights, has left the lender, Mizuho Bank said Friday without elaborating.
Toshitsugu Okabe, deputy president of Mizuho Financial Group Inc., the banking group's holding company, told a news conference Friday that he only learned of the illegal deals in April and that newly reorganized Mizuho Bank's current president, Yasuhiro Sato, wasn't informed until July.