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Tokyo court ends trial of Livedoor, Livedoor Marketing+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) TOKYO, Sept. 21_(Kyodo) _ The Tokyo District Court on Thursday concluded a trial of Internet portal site operator Livedoor Co. and its affiliate Livedoor Marketing Co. over their alleged accounting fraud. The court said it will set the date for handing down the ruling while monitoring the developments in a separate trial of former Livedoor President Takafumi Horie over the fraud. Last week, prosecutors demanded the court fine Livedoor 300 million yen and Livedoor Marketing, which changed its name to Media Innovation Co. on Sept. 1, 50 million yen for publishing false financial statements. The two companies are suspected of overestimating the value of a publishing company that Livedoor Marketing acquired through an equity swap and releasing a padded Livedoor Marketing financial statement in the fall of 2004. In its consolidated financial statement for the year to September 2004, Livedoor is alleged to have illegally booked profit on sales of its own shares and fictitious deals with an acquisition target firm to disguise a pretax loss of 300 million yen as a pretax profit of some 5 billion yen. In their final plea at Thursday's hearing, defense lawyers for the two companies called for a lenient ruling. A Livedoor lawyer said the company has turned itself around by replacing its top executives and that such fraudulent practices would not be repeated. Incumbent Livedoor Director Noritaka Ochiai pledged utmost efforts to prevent such an event from recurring. Copyright 2006 Kyodo News International, Inc. |