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Court decides to launch bankruptcy procedures for SFCG

TOKYO, Japan - Hideo Seto (C), a bankruptcy administrator for moneylender SFCG Co., speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on April 21 following the Tokyo District Court's decision to launch bankruptcy procedures for SFCG, which filed in February for protection from creditors and rehabilitation.

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Moneylender SFCG goes under with over 300 bil. yen in debts

TOKYO, Japan - SFCG Co. chairman Kenshin Oshima bows at a press conference at the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Feb. 23 in which he announced the Tokyo-based moneylender, formerly known as Shohkoh Fund Co., filed for bankruptcy protection with the Tokyo District Court after accumulating debts of more than 300 billion yen.

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Shohkoh Fund president testifies at Diet

TOKYO, Japan - Kenshin Oshima, president of Tokyo-based nonbank moneylender Shohkoh Fund and Co., testifies Dec. 14 before the House of Councillors Committee on Financial Affairs as a sworn witness. Oshima, 51, denied allegations that he instructed employees to use strong-arm tactics when collecting loans. Shohkoh Fund is one of the nation's largest ''shoko'' lenders, which specialize in high-interest, collateral-free loans to small firms.

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Diet begins questioning chief of moneylender Nichiei

TOKYO, Japan - Nichiei Co. President Kazuo Matsuda, summoned to appear before the House of Councillors' Committee on Financial Affairs as a sworn witness, enters the committee meeting room on Dec. 14. The committee questioned the head of the nonbank moneylender over whether the company instructed its employees to use aggressive, sometimes unlawful, loan collection methods.

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Nonbank moneylender bosses testify in Diet

TOKYO, Japan - Kenshin Oshima (L), president of Shohkoh Fund and Co., and Kazuo Matsuda (R), president of Nichiei Co., wait in a Diet room Nov. 11. They have been called to testify before the House of Councillors committee on fiscal and financial system affairs. Both finance companies that specializes in loans to small companies at high interest rates are at the center of a scandal over its loan collection methods.

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Moneylender SFCG goes under with over 300 bil. yen in debts

TOKYO, Japan - SFCG Co. chairman Kenshin Oshima bows at a press conference at the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Feb. 23 in which he announced the Tokyo-based moneylender, formerly known as Shohkoh Fund Co., filed for bankruptcy protection with the Tokyo District Court after accumulating debts of more than 300 billion yen. (Kyodo)

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Court decides to launch bankruptcy procedures for SFCG

TOKYO, Japan - Hideo Seto (C), a bankruptcy administrator for moneylender SFCG Co., speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on April 21 following the Tokyo District Court's decision to launch bankruptcy procedures for SFCG, which filed in February for protection from creditors and rehabilitation. (Kyodo)

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6 men held for loan-sharking leading to group suicide

OSAKA, Japan - Hiroshi Wasano is arrested and escorted to an Osaka police station on March 7. Working with five other members of a moneylender, Wasano collected illegally high interests on loans through intimidation -- eventually leading to the suicide of a man, his wife and her elder brother in the city of Yao, Osaka Prefecture, in June 2003, police said. (Kyodo)

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Saitama moneylender pleads not guilty to insurance killings

URAWA, Japan - Photo file shows Shigeru Yagi, a moneylender who pleaded not guilty March 30 to charges of killing two people in a bid to collect their life insurance money at Urawa District Court in Saitama Prefecture. Yagi is accused of conspiring with three women in a string of alleged insurance fraud cases.

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Moneylender sent to prosecutors

HONJO, Japan - Shigeru Yagi, a 50-year-old moneylender, of Honjo, Saitama Prefecture, neighboring Tokyo, in handcuffs, is transported to prosecutors on March 26 to be charged with document forgery in connection with the suspected murders of two men. Police say Yagi and three women planned and carried out the killings to collect life insurance money. The suspects were transferred from police here to district prosecutors in the prefectural capital of Urawa.

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Nichiei president to resign, son to take over

OSAKA, Japan - Kazuo Matsuda (R), 77, who has decided to resign as president of Nichiei Co., a nonbank moneylender at the center of a scandal over loan collection practices, and his son, Ryuichi (L), 47, who replaces his father, speak at a news conference in Osaka on Feb. 10.

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Moneylender Nichiei ordered to halt operations

OSAKA, Japan - Yasuto Omori, chief of the Finance Department at the Ministry of Finance's (MOF) Kinki Local Finance Bureau in Osaka, speaks at a press conference Jan. 27 on a decision ordering nonbank moneylender Nichiei Co. to suspend its operations for one week from Feb. 7. Kyoto-based Nichiei has been involved in a scandal over coercive loan collecting.

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FSA to order moneylender Nichiei to suspend operations

OSAKA, Japan - A file photo shows the head office in Kyoto of Nichiei Co., the nonbank moneylender at the center of a scandal over loan collection methods. Financial authorities were reported Jan. 19 considering order the company to suspend part of its operations for up to one year.

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