Japan Premier’s Top Aide Denies Insider Trading
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TOKYO — A top aide to Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu today denied involvement in insider trading after a Japanese newspaper detailed his stock deals.
The mass circulation Asahi Shimbun reported that Mitsuo Ando, secretary to Kaifu, had offered his resignation but that it had not been accepted pending an investigation.
In June, 1989, the Recruit shares-for-favors scandal forced Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita to resign. Kaifu’s popular support is now at the highest level for any prime minister since polling started in 1964, partly due to his clean image.
Asahi Shimbun said Ando bought 8,000 shares of electrical engineering company Meitec Corp., listed on the Nagoya Stock Exchange, three weeks after Kaifu took office in August, 1989.
Asahi said he paid about $200,000 for shares that are now worth about $330,000.
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