Japan's securities watchdog launched a criminal investigation Wednesday of activist investor Yoshiaki Murakami on suspicion of involvement in market manipulation, sources said.
The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission searched locations related to Murakami, a former trade ministry bureaucrat who quit to start his own investment fund in 1999 and became an outspoken early champion of shareholder rights in Japan.
In 2007, Murakami was convicted on charges that he bought shares in a broadcaster after learning that Internet entrepreneur Takafumi Horie's Livedoor Co. planned to make a hostile bid for its control. Murakami was sentenced to two years in prison, which was suspended on appeal.