Second Livedoor executive jailed

Ryoji Miyauchi pleaded guilty to the charges against him

A second executive at the scandal-hit Japanese internet firm Livedoor has been jailed for fraud.

Ryoji Miyauchi, Livedoor's former finance director, has been sentenced to 20 months in prison after pleading guilty to falsifying accounts.

The ruling follows a two-and-a-half year sentence given to Livedoor's flamboyant founder Takafumi Horie,

Horie has denied knowledge of any wrongdoing at the company, and is appealing the verdict.

Three other former executives, who pleaded guilty to some of the charges against them, were given suspended prison terms on Thursday.

Huge impact

Miyauchi, a 39-year-old tax accountant, admitted in court that he had planned schemes to inflate Livedoor's earnings, including booking fake orders and claiming non-operating gains from share sales as profit.

Presiding judge Toshiyuki Kosaka said that while the amount of fabricated earnings was relatively small, the crimes were serious because of their huge impact on investors.

Takafumi Horie remains defiant over his role in the Livedoor scandal

Livedoor lost more than $5bn in market value following the scandal, which also embarrassed senior politicians who had praised 34-year-old Horie as symbol of a new wave of Japanese entrepreneurship.

"In Miyauchi's case, the court had no choice but to impose a jail term given the importance of his role and the enormity of the result," Tokyo District Court's presiding judge, Toshiyuki Kosaka, told reporters.

Miyauchi, who testified against Horie at his trial, pleaded guilty to the charges against him, and told the court he wanted to make amends.

"If given the chance, I want to give something back after my release" to the people whom he caused trouble to, Miyauchi told the court, according to the Associated Press.