Prosecutors arrested five officials of Yamaichi Securities Co. on Sept. 17, including a former senior managing director, on suspicion of illegally making payoffs to a "sokaiya" corporate extortionist.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office said Hidekuni Iyama, 58, the former senior managing director, and the four others are suspected of violating the Securities and Exchange Law by passing on some 79 million yen of the brokerage's profits to Ryuichi Koike in 1995 to compensate him for securities trading losses. Providing the undue profits to the sokaiya was also in violation of the Commercial Code.
Prosecutors also served 54-year-old Koike with a new arrest warrant for allegedly taking the payoff. Koike has been in custody and has been indicted in connection with similar payoffs involving Nomura Securities Co. and Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank.