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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor

GDXJ 98.59

-2.8%

Nov 13 4:00 PM EST

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To: Don Green who wrote (24905)	12/24/1998 9:51:00 PM
From: Gord Bolton	Read Replies (1) of 116760

Japan Payoff Revelations Increase Thursday, 24 December 1998 T O K Y O (AP) LEADING JAPANESE financial institutions caught in a scandal involving payoffs to a racketeer were also funneling millions of dollars to dozens of other gangsters, news reports said Thursday. Public trust in Japan's financial firms plummeted last year following revelations that five companies made almost $100 million in illegal payments and questionable loans to racketeer Ryuichi Koike. Japanese tax officials - who have been investigating the companies' books in the wake of the scandal - said Thursday that Koike was but one of numerous extortionists demanding hush money. The five companies paid a total of $9.5 million to 35 other "sokaiya" racketeers, national broadcaster NHK said, quoting the Tokyo Regional Tax Office. Japan's sokaiya buy shares in companies and extort payments by threatening to disrupt or make embarrassing revelations at shareholder meetings. The practice has been rife in Japan for decades, but authorities have only cracked down recently. The payments revealed Thursday were reportedly made over a five-year period up to March 31, 1997. The companies made the payoffs by funneling trading profits to the racketeers or by buying luxury goods such as art works or golf club memberships from them at inflated prices. The tax bureau declined to reveal details of its probe. Tax officials on Thursday ordered the financial institutions - aside from failed Yamaichi Securities Co. - to pay a total of $7.76 million in corporate taxes and penalties for hiding income, which included kickbacks to Koike. Koike pleaded guilty to taking payoffs of more than $5 million from Nomura Securities Co., Daiwa Securities Co., Nikko Securities Co. and the now-defunct Yamaichi, and has admitted taking hidden loans worth $91 million from Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank Ltd.

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