The Tokyo police are in the final stages of an investigation into stock dealings that could become the first significant insider-trading case in Japan, a police official said today.
The official said the police were questioning a former executive of a financial institution, which he did not identify, who is suspected of obtaining advance information on a new stock issue by a Tokyo-based shipping company, Nisshin Kisen Kaisha.
The executive then asked a saleswoman with a leading insurance company to buy shares on his behalf in the shipping company before a price surge, the official said.
No one has ever been convicted in Japan in connection with insider stock trading.
Nisshin Kisen Kaisha is a medium-sized Japanese shipping company that last June issued 16 million new shares to finance the acquisition of the Regent Hotel in Sydney, Australia, for $270 million (Australian) ($200 million). The shares were allocated to 23 Japanese financial institutions.