The Tokyo District Court convicted two accountants Friday of knowingly certifying cooked Livedoor Co. financial reports, finding them negligent in their duty to provide accurate information to investors.
In the latest in a series of guilty verdicts to result from the accounting fraud that has engulfed Livedoor, Taishin Hisano, 42, of the now defunct Yokohama-based auditing firm Koyo & Co, was handed 10 months in prison. Motoshi Kobayashi, 52, a former Koyo employee, was given a suspended one-year term. Hisano appealed the verdict.
Later in the day, the court also fined Livedoor Co., an Internet service provider, 280 million yen, the largest penalty ever levied for Securities Exchange Law violations. media innovation Co., formerly Livedoor Marketing Co., was fined 40 million yen.