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Tokyo, Japan - The Tokyo High Court struck down an appeal by Japanese entrepreneur and founder of Livedoor, Takafumi Horie, who was convicted of securities fraud and sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison by a lower court.
The court rejected Horie's claim that he was not guilty of charges of securities fraud, which included padding Livedoor's earnings and giving false information to prospective investors to hike share prices.
For many, 35-year-old Horie represented a new model of entrepreneurship in Japan, building a US$50,000 (S$68,000) start-up Internet company into a conglomerate worth US$6 billion at its peak.
Horie rose to fame in 2004 with his failed bid for a professional baseball team in the western city of Osaka and a later takeover battle with a major TV network.
After Horie and other Livedoor executives were charged in 2006, the company lost US$5 billion in market value and sparked a share sell-off that crashed the Tokyo Stock Exchange's computer system.
The company lost its TSE listing a few months later.
The initial ruling came as a surprise in Japan, where white-collar criminals can usually avoid actual jail time if they plead guilty and show remorse. -- REUTERS
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