A key prosecution witness in the trial of a disgraced Japanese Internet maverick was grilled by defense attorneys, and acknowledged what he remembered about his earlier testimony was less certain.
Ryoji Miyauchi, former CFO of Internet startup Livedoor, had told the court earlier this month in questioning by the prosecution at Tokyo District Court that Takafumi Horie, the defendant, was behind a scheme that fabricated sales to inflate earnings.
Horie, 33, who plummeted from celebrity status after his arrest in January, has pleaded not guilty to charges of securities laws violations. He denies having masterminded the alleged scheme.
Miyauchi is the key witness linking Horie, Livedoor's founder, to the alleged dealings, which prosecutors say involved dummy companies and doctored earnings reports.
How much Horie knew about the dealings is the key question in the trial, which began September 4.
In earlier testimony, Miyauchi had said he thought that conversations he and others had with Horie meant the entrepreneur was instructing him to falsify earnings.
But chief defense lawyer Yasuyuki Takai said Miyauchi may be confused, and showed him diagrams of the scheme, which Miyauchi had testified earlier were used to explain the scheme to Horie.
Under questioning, Miyauchi became less certain about when or where the diagrams were discussed, or who had done the talking.
In his questioning, Takai suggested Miyauchi was merely following a scenario set by the prosecutors.