- Yoshiaki Tsutsumi
Yoshiaki Tsutsumi (堤義明, "Tsutsumi Yoshiaki", born
May 29 ,1934 ) is aJapan ese businessman. During the Japaneseeconomic bubble in the late 1980s, Tsutsumi was the wealthiest person in the world for a brief period due to his extensivereal estate investments through the Seibu Corporation, which he controlled. However, as a result of a series of scandals and his 2005 arrest, hisnet worth has fallen to such an extent that he was taken off theForbes list of billionaires in2007 .In
1964 , the thirty-year-old Yoshiaki Tsutsumi inherited control of the Seibu Corporation upon the death of the company founder, his fatherYasujiro Tsutsumi . Most observers had expected the designated successor to be his elder half-brotherSeiji Tsutsumi . Seiji instead inherited the Seibu department stores, which he subsequently parlayed into the Saison retail empire. Perceived rivalry between the two brothers' fiefdoms provided fodder for the popular press.As chairman, Tsutsumi focused on developing and expanding the vast land holdings inherited from his father. At one point, his companies owned one sixth of all the land in Japan. He also initiated new ventures into the sports market, building a stadium in the
greater Tokyo area to house a professional baseball team, theSeibu Lions . He was instrumental in the successfulNagano bid for the1998 Winter Olympics .The
January 17 ,2005 edition ofThe Wall Street Journal made an investigation on Tsutsumi and the Seibu Corporation public to American readers. According to the paper, the Seibu corporation's headquarters were raided bypolice , who allegedly found evidence of several Japanese business law-breaking incidents. The police, for example, claimed that the company declared that their major shareholders accounted only for 64 percent of the company's shareholders, but that, in reality, the majority of the shareholders at Seibu actually owned 88 percent of the company's shares. Such bogus ownership statement is suspected to be illegal falsification. Major shareholders can only get up to 80 percent of a Japanese company's stock to be listed on theTokyo Stock Exchange .That scandal was originally opened in2002 in Japan, after which Mr. Tsutsumi was ordered by a court out of the company, but he remained in it, although at a much less paid employment.On
March 3 ,2005 , Tsutsumi was arrested on suspicion of violation of securities trading law. Tsutsumi pleaded guilty, and onOctober 27 ,2005 , the Tokyo District Court sentenced him to 30 months in prison, suspended for 4 years, and a fine of 5 million yen.External links
* [http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists/10/2004/LIR.jhtml?passListId=10&passYear=2004&passListType=Person&uniqueId=CK8H&datatype=Person Forbes.com: Forbes World's Richest People]
* Downer, Lesley (1994). "The Brothers: the hidden world of Japan's richest family". New York: Random House, Inc. ISBN 0-679-42554-3.
* [http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200510270365.html Disgraced billionaire gets fine, not time] "asahi.com." October 28, 2005.
* [http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20051028a1.htm Tycoon Tsutsumi found guilty of fraud] "Japan Times Online." October 28, 2005.
* [http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN0821626920070309?pageNumber=3 Billonaires richer, Russia, India rise: Forbes] "Reuters" March 8, 2007.
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