Tycoon avoids prison over shares scam

Japanese courts have _____ a strangely lenient _____ to a business tycoon who was once listed in Forbes magazine as the world’s richest man. Yoshiaki Tsutsumi was found guilty of _____ _____ and falsifying his company’s _____ _____ by a court in Tokyo. Presiding judge Tsutomu Tochigi said: “The impact on society of crimes by such leading Japanese companies is very serious”. Judge Tochigi then proceeded to hand out a sentence wholly incommensurate with the _____ of the crime expressed in his _____. He _____ Mr. Tsutsumi a paltry $43,000 – chicken feed to someone of his vast wealth – and sentenced him to 30 months in _____, suspended for four years. It is highly unlikely Tsutsumi will serve any of that time.

Tsutsumi’s fall from grace has been swift, although he does not quite prove the adage “the bigger they are, the harder they fall,” judging from his light court sentencing. The judge said he was not sent to prison because he has already been socially _____. Tsutsumi is the former _____ of Kokudo Corporation, the core firm of the Seibu railway group, with holdings in _____, hotels, _____ and a baseball team. He is one of Japan's most powerful industrialists and has close connections to many of the country’s leading politicians. In September 2004, Tsutsumi lied about his stake in his company and _____ hundreds of non-existent _____. The subsequent sale of shares from his shady _____ lined his own pockets to the tune of $180,000,000.

3. AFTER LISTENING

6. Answer the following questions.

1. What is Yoshiaki Tsutsumi?

2. What was he found guilty of?

3. What sentence did the presiding judge Tochigi hand out?

4. What kind of crime did Yoshiaki Tsutsumi commit?

5. Is Yoshiaki Tsutsumi a rich man or not?

6. How much money was he fined to pay for the crime?

7. Did the presiding judge Tochigi send Yoshiaki Tsutsumi to prison or not? Why?

8. What corporation was Yoshiaki Tsutsumi at the head of?

9. Who does he have close connections to?

10. What did Yoshiaki Tsutsumi lie about in September 2004?

11. What brought him $180,000,000?

7. Match the following synonyms from the article.

meted out lenient falsifying incommensurate chicken feed fall from grace adage ostracized non-existent shady

peanuts unethical at odds bogus light saying demise awarded snubbed fabricating

8. Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible).

   courts have meted found guilty of insider trading and a paltry chicken feed to to 30 months in prison Tsutsumi’s fall from the bigger they are socially fabricated hundreds of his shady dealings

   grace has been swift lined his own pockets suspended for four years ostracized $43,000 someone of his vast wealth non-existent shareholders out a strangely lenient sentence the harder they fall falsifying his company’s share records

9. Choose the correct word in each pair of italicized words.