Originally published February 13 2006
Trading of Livedoor shares suspended
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The internet company has reportedly tampered with its earnings reports and is also suspected of illegally profiting from an internal transfer of shares. Prosecutors raided the company on suspicion of securities law violations.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange suspended trading in shares of Livedoor Co. (4753.T: Quote, Profile, Research) on Wednesday after media reports that the Internet company, which was raided by prosecutors on Monday, had tampered with its earnings reports.
The exchange took the action after the Mainichi newspaper reported that Livedoor had changed details in its report for the year ended September 2005 while the Yomiuri newspaper said the company had falsified part of its report for the previous year.
Prosecutors raided the company on suspicion of securities law violations late on Monday but authorities have not officially disclosed details of their investigation.
The raid triggered a 2.84 percent drop in the Nikkei share average on Tuesday, its biggest percentage loss in nine months.
Livedoor shares failed to trade on Tuesday due to a huge glut of sell orders but were quoted down 14.4 percent, the daily limit.
Before the suspension on Wednesday, the stock was quoted down 17 percent in the pre-market.
According to media reports, Livedoor and a group company are also suspected of illegally profiting from a deal that had been announced as an external acquisition but which in fact was an internal transfer of shares.
Livedoor's maverick chief executive, Takafumi Horie, has made many enemies in Japan's staid corporate and media world with his "bare-knuckled" business practices and brash personality.
The T-shirt-clad entrepreneur emerged as a media fixture in 2004 when he launched a bid to buy a professional baseball team.
He then shook Japan's conservative broadcast industry last year when he tried to take control of the sprawling Fuji Sankei media empire.
He also ran for parliament in a general election last September but lost to an old-guard incumbent.
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