OSAKA -- The Osaka District Court on Monday sentenced a woman once called Japan's largest individual stock investor to a 12-year prison term for fraud and breach of trust to the tune of about 274 billion yen.
In a case said indicative of the speculative excesses of the bubble economy, the court ruled that Nui Onoue, 68, caused 179 billion yen in financial damage through fraud and about 95 billion yen through breach of trust.
Two Osaka-based financial institutions -- Toyo Shinyo Kinko, a "shinkin" (credit) bank, and Kizu Shinyo Kumiai, a credit union -- suffered financial damage from Onoue's crimes and eventually collapsed. Onoue, who used to run a high-class restaurant in Osaka, was arrested in September 1991 on suspicion of colluding with a branch head of Toyo Shinyo Kinko to have fake deposit certificates issued.