Former Internet entrepreneur Takafumi Horie and his defense team are confident he will be cleared of securities laws violation charges, one of the lawyers said Sunday, a day before the trial is due to begin.
Horie, 33, founder and former president of Internet startup Livedoor Co., is suspected, together with his former executives, of falsifying earnings data to inflate stock prices and other securities laws violations.
But the prosecutors' case against the former dot-com hero is overblown and won't stand in court, Yasuyuki Takai, one of Horie's lawyers, said in an interview aired Sunday on TV Asahi.