Racketeering scandal hits Nomura profits
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Nomura, the scandal-ridden Japanese securities house, admitted yesterday its profits had been hit hard since it emerged two months ago that it had been paying money into a racketeering organisation, known as a sokaiya, to stop its annual meeting from being disrupted.
The company yesterday announced that fees from underwriting stocks and bonds in Japan soared by a third in the year to end-March, but reported an overall net loss of 271bn (pounds 1.32bn) due to the bail out of a real- estate lending subsidiary.
While conceding that the sokaiya scandal would hurt profits this year, Nomura predicted it would remain in the black even if customers continued to desert and if it was ordered by the regulatory authorities to shut down trading on its own account for several months.
In March alone, when the scandal broke, profits were halved, said Takamichi Arata, director of Nomura's finance department. "This year will be difficult. But by cutting costs, we'll probably manage to stay in the black." Earlier this week every top executive resigned from Nomura.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments