The Sapporo High Court on Thursday overturned a lower court acquittal of two ex-presidents of the now-defunct Hokkaido Takushoku Bank, giving them each 2 1/2-year prison terms for approving loans that led to the Sapporo-based bank's collapse in 1997.
Judge Kotaro Nagashima also scrapped a not-guilty decision on the borrower in the case. Yoichi Nakamura, 66, the former head of Sapporo-based resort-hotel developer Therme group, was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Hokkaido Takushoku Bank -- or Takugin -- ex-Presidents Hiroshi Yamauchi, 79, and Sadamasa Kawatani, 71, and Yoichi Nakamura, 66, of Therme were found guilty of aggravated breach of trust under the Commercial Code.