(March 26): A Tokyo court found a former judge guilty of insider trading in a verdict that comes amid a string of financial scandals at banks as well as the stock exchange.

The Tokyo District Court handed Soichiro Sato a suspended two-year prison sentence Wednesday for using confidential information he obtained while working at the Financial Services Agency last year to buy stocks before tender offers were made public, according to the court’s spokeswoman.

Sato, 32, was at the time working at the department responsible for reviewing and approving documents on tender offers, Kyodo News said.

The verdict comes as a series of scandals have hit the country’s financial industry. On Monday, the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission asked prosecutors to press charges against a former Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank manager for insider trading.

In December, the securities watchdog filed a complaint to prosecutors against a former Tokyo Stock Exchange employee and his father for alleged insider trading.

In Wednesday’s case, Sato used information obtained while at the FSA to buy shares of companies including Mimasu Semiconductor Industry Co, whose stock later soared on the announcement of a tender offer by Shin-Etsu Chemical Co, according to a complaint filed in December by the SESC.

The court ordered Sato to pay a ¥1 million (RM29,224.67) fine and to forfeit about ¥10.2 million in profits from the illegal transactions, the spokeswoman said.

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