Ex-Execs of AI Developer Alt Found Guilty over Window-Dressing

Tokyo, May 25 (Jiji Press)–Tokyo District Court on Monday found two former executives of Japanese artificial intelligence developer Alt Inc. guilty of window dressing in violation of the financial instruments and exchange law. Former executive officer Katsuya Asai, 46, and former treasury and accounting division chief Takayuki Ariizumi, 53, were both sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for five years. The Tokyo-based company was fined 300 million yen. Noting that fictitious sales at the firm reached about 11 billion yen in total, judge Shoji Miyata said, “The window-dressing rate was extremely high, and the company achieved a stock listing that should not have been approved.” “The impact the malpractice has had on the stock market was huge,” the judge added. Both defendants received suspended sentences, however. On the reason, the judge said, “They played an important and indispensable role in the crime, but they were only in a position to receive instructions.” Kazutaka Yonekura, 48, and Yusuke Hioki, 35, both former presidents of Alt, have also been indicted in the case. According to the ruling, Asai and Ariizumi conspired with Yonekura and Hioki in September 2024 to submit to authorities securities reports that inflated Alt’s sales between January 2022 and June 2024 by about 8.4 billion yen. In March 2025, after the company’s listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Growth section in October 2024, they submitted a report that overstated sales for 2024 by about 4.9 billion yen. Alt was delisted in August 2025 following the start of its civil rehabilitation procedures under the Tokyo court in the wake of the accounting fraud. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]