A former financial director of now-defunct Yaohan International Holdings Ltd. has been arrested and charged with conspiring to defraud the company's shareholders, creditors and auditors, Hong Kong authorities said Thursday.
Kazuhiko Fujita, 48, who was also charged with falsifying an accounting document involving 689 million Hong Kong dollars (10.58 billion yen) that vanished, appeared before the Eastern Magistracy on Thursday but entered no plea.
The case was adjourned to Oct. 4 and Fujita was remanded into custody.
Police arrested Fujita upon his arrival Tuesday from Japan at Chek Lap Kok airport.
Fujita is accused of conspiring with two former Japanese senior managers of Yaohan International and other individuals to defraud the firm's shareholders, creditors and auditors between April 1995 and March 1997 over seven loans that totaled around HK$1.26 billion.
The defendant is also alleged to have falsified an accounting document for a lending firm in August 1996.
Investigations by the police's Commercial Crime Bureau found that loans from the firm were bogus and some funds had been channeled to other companies.
About HK$689 million were never recovered, police said.
The case was exposed by the group's new managers in March 1998, when it took over the company from its former directors, police said.
Yaohan International, the Hong Kong unit of failed supermarket chain Yaohan Japan Corp., went into liquidation in August 1998.