TOKYO (AFP) — Flamboyant dotcom tycoon Takafumi Horie on Friday lost his appeal against a two-and-a-half year prison term for fraud in a scandal that rocked Japan's stock market.
The Tokyo High Court declined to overturn the sentence Horie, the 35-year-old founder of former Internet high-flyer Livedoor, was handed down in March 2007.
The brash Horie was once the darling of the Japanese media, which portrayed him as a harbinger of a new, rougher style of business in a country known for consensus and playing by the rules.
"The defendant has a flimsy sense of standards and lacks any grace," presiding judge Tetsuji Nagaoka said as he handed down the verdict.
Horie's lawyer Yasuyuki Takai voiced outrage at the judge's comments, saying that his client was being punished for being confident in his own innocence.
"For this belief of his to be reflected in the verdict shows that this is not a trial in a modern nation. Obviously we cannot forgive this," Takai told reporters.
Horie, who continues to plead his innocence and is out on bail, did not appear in court to hear the verdict.
But he submitted a statement in which he wrote: "What I did for the development of the markets resulted instead in a loss of trust, and that I cannot regret enough."
Horie and web portal Livedoor were accused of falsely reporting a pre-tax profit of five billion yen (47 million dollars) to hide actual losses as the firm launched an aggressive bid to take over the country's top broadcaster.
The Livedoor scandal briefly sent the Tokyo stock market plunging in 2006, forcing it to close early for the first time ever.
His lawyers immediately appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, arguing that the case was minor compared with other financial scandals in Japan that caused major financial losses.
The judge rejected that assertion, saying, "Although the padded figures were not large, their level of crime was big."
The judge also said he found testimony from former Livedoor chief financial officer Ryoji Miyauchi to be "highly credible." Miyauchi, once Horie's right-hand man, admitted to fraud as part of a plea bargain.
"In the cases both of accounting fraud and falsifying reports, the defendant had criminal intentions and complicity from accomplices," Nagaoka said.
Horie has refused any plea bargain and insisted the trial was revenge by a rattled establishment. His reaction was unusual in Japan, where it is standard for defendants to apologise in return for more lenient treatment.
Horie's bare-knuckles style had turned him into a media star. He wore T-shirts to business meetings, drove a Ferrari around Tokyo and often bragged that his money could buy him anything.
He ran unsuccessfully for parliament with the blessing of former reformist premier Junichiro Koizumi, who had hoped that Horie would win a seat from one of his top opponents.
But despite his boastful style, Horie's highest profile corporate acquisition attempts never worked out.
He failed to acquire a popular baseball team. His attempt to take over Fuji Television, Japan's most watched network, ended in a truce when the station reluctantly bought Livedoor shares to form a tie-up.
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