Heo Young Joong, sentenced last week to seven years in prison for defrauding an oil materials sales company out of nearly 18 billion yen, filed an appeal Monday against the ruling.

Heo's lawyer filed the appeal with the Tokyo High Court against the Tokyo District Court ruling Friday on the fraud involving the oil materials sales firm Ishibashi Sangyo.

Heo was convicted last year in the Itoman fraud case.

Two executives of a company related to Heo also appealed their rulings Monday. They were sentenced Friday to suspended prison terms. , one of three years and the other of two years and 10 months.

Morikazu Tanaka, 59, a lawyer sentenced Friday to four years in prison, filed an appeal earlier.

Heo, 55, an Osaka-based real estate developer, swindled Ishibashi Sangyo out of 17.9 billion yen in promissory notes in exchange for an offer of shares in a construction company in 1996, the court said Friday.

It said Heo and the two executives approached Ishibashi Sangyo and proposed that the company buy shares of Arai-Gumi Ltd., a midsize general contractor.

The three obtained the promissory notes as payment for the shares, which were never delivered to Ishibashi Sangyo, the court said.