Businessman Heo Young Joong filed an appeal Tuesday with the Supreme Court against a high court ruling that found him guilty of defrauding an oil wholesaler of nearly 18 billion yen.
Two codefendants, executives of Heo's company, also filed appeals after having their suspended prison sentences upheld by the high court.
The Tokyo High Court on Jan. 31 ruled that the 58-year-old Heo, a former president of a real estate management company, was guilty of swindling Ishibashi Sangyo out of 17.9 billion yen in promissory notes in exchange for an offer of shares in a construction company in 1996. His prison term was commuted to six years from seven.
The high court also cut the sentence for another of Heo's codefendants, Morikazu Tanaka, 62, a one-time prosecutor, to three years from four and upheld the suspended prison terms for the two former executives of Heo's property management company.
According to the ruling, Heo and his accomplices approached Ishibashi Sangyo and proposed it buy shares of a midsize construction company. Heo received promissory notes for the shares but did not forward the shares to Ishibashi Sangyo.