Horie goes for the counterslam

Takafumi Horie, the ex-president of Livedoor recently convicted of securities fraud, continues his role as spotlight-hog even in disgrace. He’s been the subject of numerous interviews and press stories throughout his trial. So as a man for whom winning the image war between himself and prosecutors may be even more important than whether his appeals ultimately succeed, it seems only natural that Horie would take the opportunity to SLAM the court’s decision:

Convicted Horie stays defiant, slams court
The Associated Press

Disgraced dot-com tycoon Takafumi Horie slammed his conviction and harsh sentence for securities fraud Sunday, insisting he committed no crimes and that he had more than paid for any mistakes by losing his company.

On Friday, Horie was found guilty of masterminding a network of decoy investment funds to illegally manipulate earnings at his Internet startup, and was sentenced to 2 1/2-half years in prison in the biggest white-collar-crime trial Japan has witnessed in years.

“I did not intentionally attempt to pad earnings, and there was no false accounting,” an intent-looking Horie, former president of Livedoor Co., said on a TV Asahi talk show Sunday. “I do not accept the court’s verdict.”

Horie is on bail while he appeals the verdict.

One thought on “Horie goes for the counterslam”

  1. I saw that programme, and it proved to me beyond any shadow of a doubt that Horie is certainly not the kind of example we should be setting for aspiring entrepreneurs.

    He was asked why he wasn’t on top of the numbers and didn’t notice anything wrong about the huge jump in booked profits before the financial closing, and he made a really lame excuse about monthly financial reporting being a heavy burden on a venture business.

    Whilst it is indeed a burden, as a VC, I certainly would not invest in a company who could not track their numbers on a monthly basis (at the very least). The old excuses about hiring expensive beancounters doesn’t hold anymore. Cheap solutions to track financials are available, and indeed the inability to track the relevant data will hamper you significantly when others are doing so.

    But more to the point, Livedoor was a listed company, not a privately held venture business, and had been for several years.

    As well as speaking volumes for the reality of Livedoor, the situation is a damning indictment of an environment which allows immature companies to be listed.

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