Yoshihisa Tabuchi, former president of Nomura Securities Co., maintained June 5 in unsworn Diet testimony that he had nothing to do with the alleged illegal payoffs by the nation's largest brokerage to a "sokaiya" corporate extortionist.
But six Lower House members who questioned Tabuchi during the day's Diet session all cast doubt on his denials. Appearing before the Lower House Budget Committee, Tabuchi repeatedly said he had never met sokaiya Ryuichi Koike and had had no knowledge of him until the scandal broke. Koike was arrested last month on suspicion of receiving about 50 million yen in payoffs from Nomura.
Tabuchi, president until 1991 and currently an adviser to Nomura, also denied that his successor, Hideo Sakamaki, who was arrested last week for allegedly playing a key role in the payoffs, frequently consulted with him on ways to handle Koike. "I gave no instructions (to Sakamaki), nor did (Sakamaki) ask me for advice (about Koike's case)," Tabuchi said. "I have never seen Koike, either."