[March 27, 2006] Livedoor founder Horie's trial to be separate from other execs'+ (Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, March 27_(Kyodo) _ The Tokyo District Court will separate former Livedoor Co. President Takafumi Horie's trial from four other former Livedoor executives' trials over alleged securities law violations, informed sources said Monday. The court, prosecutors and defense lawyers are trying to arrange Horie's first hearing for around this summer, the sources said, adding they are trying to arrange the four others' first hearings for sometime after the first week of May. According to prosecution sources, Horie, 33, has mostly denied being involved in the alleged fraudulent accounting practices, though he recently admitted to some of the charges for the first time since his arrest Jan. 23. The four others, including former Chief Financial Officer Ryoji Miyauchi, 38, and former Representative Director Fumito Kumagai, 28, have admitted to the allegations, according to the prosecution sources. The two others indicted are former Livedoor Director and Livedoor Marketing Co. President Fumito Okamoto and former Livedoor Operating Officer and Livedoor Finance Co. President Osanari Nakamura. Due to the complexity of the alleged accounting fraud, the district court is believed to have decided to sort out major issues in the cases before the start of the trials to speed up the court procedures. The former executives, as well as Livedoor itself, are accused of inflating the Internet company's financial figures to make it appear that it had a group pretax profit of 5 billion yen for the year through September 2004, though it actually had a pretax loss of some 300 million yen in the period. All except Kumagai are also accused of spreading false financial information in 2004 about the takeover of a publisher by Livedoor Marketing, then known as ValueClick Japan Inc. [ Back To the Online Project Management Community's Homepage ]