AIJ Investment Advisor’s president along with three executives of AIJ could face jail if found guilty of embezzling pension funds of USD 1.4bn.
This scandal is the latest to hit Japan after last year’s scandal where camera maker Olympus had hidden USD 1.7bn in losses for as long as 20 years.
Japanese prosecutors said $9m of the missing money was stolen from clients.
Japanese pension fund managers are facing pressure to provide high rates of return, despite the fact that the country’s economy has experienced weak growth for two decades.
Some funds are required to provide a return as high as 5.5% at a time when returns on safer investments such as lending to the government are at record lows.
