The Long-term Credit Bank of Japan decided Thursday to sue 15 former bank executives, demanding 6.3 billion yen in damages for massive losses they allegedly caused the bank, LTCB officials said. Based on a decision reached at a board meeting Thursday morning, the bank, currently under state control, will report to the Financial Reconstruction Commission and file the case with the Tokyo District Court, the officials said. Among the 15 former executives named in the suit are two former presidents -- Tetsuya Horie, 68, and Katsunobu Onogi, 63 -- as well as former Chairman Takao Masuzawa, 69, and former Vice President Yoshiharu Suzuki, 62, according to the officials. The incumbent LTCB management, led by President Takashi Anzai, argues that the former executives played major roles in causing huge losses to the bank with dubious lending and improper dividend payments. The LTCB collapsed under the weight of nonperforming loans in October 1998. The bank's operations are set to be sold to an investment consortium led by Ripplewood Holdings LLC of the United States.
