Former President of Nomura Arrested

Tokyo prosecutors arrested Hideo Sakamaki, former president of Nomura Securities Co., on suspicion he approved payoffs to a corporate racketeer. The arrest of Sakamaki, 61, is a sign prosecutors suspect the brokerage’s top executives knew of the $430,000 in payments to Ryuichi Koike, identified as a sokaiya racketeer. Sakamaki resigned from Nomura in March to take responsibility for the scandal. Nomura President Junichi Ujiie told reporters at a press conference at the Tokyo Stock Exchange that the company is “very sorry about this situation� and apologized to its shareholders and customers. Ujiie also said Sakamaki resigned from his advisory post with Nomura. Nomura said the payoffs were the work of three rogue employees. Sokaiya extort money from companies by threatening to disrupt shareholders’ meetings by revealing company secrets. Prosecutors two weeks ago arrested Koike, 54, his brother and the three employees fingered by Nomura, Japan’s largest brokerage.