The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission lodged a criminal complaint with prosecutors March 9 against Nikko Securities Co. and two former executives for illegally offering profits to the late House of Representatives lawmaker Shokei Arai.
Sources close to the commission said the brokerage, former Vice President Yumio Hiraishi and former Managing Director Hiroyuki Hamahira stand accused of offering 29.16 million yen in additional profits to the lawmaker, who committed suicide before his impending arrest last month.
The profit was transferred from Nikko's own trading account into one in the name of a friend of Arai to conceal the money Arai earned from the stock transactions.
The illegal dealings occurred 25 times between Oct. 31, 1995 and June 18, 1996, according to the complaint.
The Tokyo District Prosecutor's Office was expected to indict the two former Nikko officials and the brokerage for violating the Securities and Exchange Law.
Due to the suicide, investigators and the SESC were forced to discontinue efforts to press charges against Arai, who reportedly demanded Nikko's help in making more money.
The SESC is empowered to call on the finance minister to take administrative action against a brokerage that has been found to have violated the Securities and Exchange Law.
Nikko's administrative punishment for offering illegal loss compensation to a "sokaiya" corporate extortionist, which included a suspension of a portion of its business for 2 1/2 months, was lifted last week.