The Tokyo High Court convicted Yoshiaki Murakami (pictured), a well known Japanese fund manager, of insider trading last week, but overturned a lower court ruling that would have sent him to prison.
Judge Hiroshi Kadono imposed a 3 million yen ($33,400) fine and additional penalties of 1.15 billion yen ($12.82 million) on Murakami, the former head of MAC Asset Management, a court official told the AP. The court said that Murakami profited “by persuading Takafumi Horie, the flamboyant founder of Internet startup Livedoor Co., to buy shares in radio broadcaster Nippon Broadcasting in 2004, knowing that there would be an imminent takeover.”
In 2007, the Tokyo District Court ordered Murakami be sent to prison — a relatively rare sentence for white-collar crimes — because of the seriousness of his actions. Judge Kadono, however, decided last week to give Murakami a suspended sentence.
