ATLANTA -- The culprit in a financial scandal that rocked Japan nearly five years ago now has his eye on a second shot at the financial arena from a most unlikely place -- a small town some 60 km northeast of Atlanta.

Toshihide Iguchi, a former star bond trader at Daiwa Bank's New York branch, made international headlines in 1995 with revelations that he had racked up $1.1 billion in trading losses from 30,000 unauthorized deals spanning 12 years.

The disclosure came through a letter of confession Iguchi mailed in July 1995 to then Daiwa President Akira Fujita. Contrary to his expectations, the bank turned Iguchi in to prosecutors. In December 1996, he was sentenced to four years in prison and slapped with $2.6 million in fines and restitution.