Toshihiro Ono, the former chief of Recruit Co.'s presidential secretariat, was given a two-year prison term Sept. 17, suspended for three years, for selling unlisted Recruit Cosmos shares to two Diet members from 1985 to 1986.
Ono, 47, was found guilty of bribing former Lower House member Katsuya Ikeda, 60, and former Vice Labor Minister Takashi Kato, 67, on the orders of former Recruit board chairman Hiromasa Ezoe, 61. Ikeda and Kato have already been convicted for taking bribes in what is known as the Recruit scandal.
Handing down the sentences, presiding Judge Hideaki Mikami of the Tokyo District Court said the two attempted to steer Diet proceedings in a way that would promote Recruit and its interests, undermining public trust in the nation's civil service.