TOKYO, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Tokyo District Court on Monday ordered SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. to pay a fine of 700 million yen (5.3 million U.S. dollars) and a forfeiture of 4.47 billion yen (about 33.7 million dollars) for stock price manipulation.
According to the ruling, SMBC Nikko illegally propped up the prices of 10 individual stock issues before selling them in so-called block offering transactions, which violated Japan's financial instruments and exchange law.
In a block offering transaction, brokerage houses buy large amounts of shares from major shareholders and sell them to investors in off-hours trading, and profits from the difference between the purchase and sale prices.
The Japanese court also sentenced the major brokerage's former executive Teruya Sugino, 57, to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, for his involvement in one of the cases.
Five other former executives at SMBC Nikko, including its former deputy president, are also charged in the trading scandal, but their first hearings are yet to be decided.
Prosecutors had sought a penalty of 1 billion yen (about 7.5 million dollars) and a forfeiture of 4.44 billion yen (about 33.5 million dollars) against the brokerage, as well as an unsuspended prison sentence of 18 months for Sugino. ■