Ex-SMBC Nikko deputy president convicted over market manipulation

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A Japanese district court on Tuesday convicted a former deputy president of SMBC Nikko Securities over his role in market manipulation involving the illegal purchase of shares to stabilize stock prices.

Toshihiro Sato, 63, was sentenced by the Tokyo District Court to two years and six months in prison, suspended for five years, for violating the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act while working for the major Japanese brokerage.

Four other former employees were also convicted on the same charge. All five had pleaded not guilty.

According to the indictment, between December 2019 and April 2021, SMBC Nikko placed large buy orders to stabilize the prices of 10 stocks.

The trades were part of "block offering" transactions, in which the firm purchased significant volumes of shares from major shareholders outside normal trading hours and resold them to investors.

Trials for SMBC Nikko as a corporation, which admitted to the charge, and for another former executive were held separately. The court handed down guilty verdicts in 2023, and those rulings have since been finalized.