Ex-head of Shinwa bank gets 4-yr jail sentence for loans

TOKYO, Japan - A file photo shows former President Toru Tsujita of Shinwa Bank in Nagasaki Prefecture, who was sentenced by the Tokyo District Court on Feb. 7 to four years in prison for misusing 6.5 billion yen in bank funds. Tsujita, 74, was charged with conspiring to loan money to a Tokyo cosmetic company run by Yoshimasa Soejima, as well as two other companies from July 1993 to June 1995 with the foreknowledge that the money was not likely to be recovered. Soejima, 56, was also sentenced to three years and eight months in prison.