Two former presidents of the failed Hokkaido Takushoku Bank were acquitted Thursday in a breach of trust case involving 8.57 billion yen in allegedly shady loans that the bank lent to a local business group.
The Sapporo District Court also acquitted a former president of the Hokkaido-based Therme group, who had been charged with conspiring with the former presidents of the bank, popularly known as Takugin, for about 4.7 billion yen of the loans.
Prosecutors had demanded five-year prison terms for former Takugin Presidents Hiroshi Yamauchi, 75, and Sadamasa Kawatani, 68, for aggravated breach of trust in providing the loans that turned sour, and a three-year term for Therme's Yoichi Nakamura, 62.
Yamauchi, Kawatani and Nakamura had all pleaded not guilty.