Insider trade nets suspended term

OSAKA (Kyodo) The Osaka District Court on Friday sentenced a former president of Inaba Denkisangyo Co., an electric cable wholesaler listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, to a suspended 18-month prison term for insider trading.

Takeshi Deguchi, 70, who stepped down as head of the Osaka-based company in March, was also hit with 10.45 million yen in penalties for trading shares of electronics maker Digital Electronics Corp. after obtaining undisclosed information in September 2002 about an imminent takeover bid for Inaba Denkisangyo's business partner by Schneider Electric Japan Ltd.

After obtaining the information from a Digital Electronics executive, Deguchi bought 2,500 company shares using his children's names, according to the court.

Following the bid by the Tokyo-based subsidiary of France's Schneider Electric S.A., he made a profit of some 4.85 million yen by selling the shares at twice what he paid for them, in violation of the Securities and Exchange Law, the court ruled.

Deguchi had pleaded guilty to the charges, but his defense asked for leniency, saying the former president "did not have definite recognition" that his actions constituted insider trading.