A former managing director of Seibu Railway Co. pleaded guilty Thursday to providing benefits worth 89 million yen to a corporate racketeer and his accomplices by selling company-owned land at prices well below market value in 2001, thereby violating the Commercial Code.
Nine other employees and former employees of Seibu Railway and a real estate affiliate implicated in the deal, as well as the racketeer's five accomplices, all admitted that the transactions had taken place.
Two of the accomplices argued, however, that the prices at which they bought the land, all in Kanagawa Prefecture, were reasonable.