Nomura Securities Co President Hideo Sakamaki resigned after saying he’d been unaware of the illegal dealings that embroiled the company in its biggest scandal in a half-decade. Sakamaki said he didn’t learn that two directors improperly passed trading profits to a client. He also said he didn’t know the identity of the client, who local media have linked with organised crime groups. “I didn’t know about the directors’ dealings,” said Sakamaki, 61, who became president six years ago when his predecessor resigned in the midst of Nomura’s last big scandal. Nomura probably will have to pay a fine and suspend operations for up to six months as a punishment. “As the person in charge of the company, I have to take responsibility for everything.” Nomura shares were unchanged at 1,380 yen the first day they haven’t fallen since the problems surfaced last week, amid optimism the resignations may be the peak of the scandal.
Other important events:
1844 Carlos Antonio Lopez is sworn in as Paraguay’s first constitutional president.
1891 The first underwater telephone cable between England and France is laid.
1900 US Congress ratifies the Gold Standard Act.
1917 China severs diplomatic relations with Germany in First World War.
1923 US President Warren Harding becomes the first chief executive to file an income tax report.
1939 Republic of Czechoslovakia is dissolved, opening the way for Nazi occupation.
1951 UN forces recapture Seoul during the Korean War.
1980 A Polish airliner crashes while approaching Warsaw airport, killing all 87 people aboard.
1981 A Pakistan airline hijacking ends in Syria.
1983 Opec announces the biggest price cut in 23-year history, slashing oil price by 15 per cent to $29 a barrel.
1984 Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams is shot and seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1989 Prince Charles and Princess Diana arrive in Abu Dhabi on their first official visit to the UAE.
1991 Emir Shaikh Jaber Al Ahmad Al Sabah returns to Kuwait after seven months in exile.
1995 Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American to enter space aboard a Russian spacecraft Soyuz, headed for the Mir space station.
1998 India’s Congress Party appoints Sonia Gandhi as its president.
1999 University of Sharjah is inaugurated.
2000 Aviation Museum is opened in Sharjah.
2002 Serbia and Montenegro sign an accord to restructure their ties and formally drop the name Yugoslavia.
2003 South Korea urges North Korea to defuse its nuclear standoff through multilateral talks.
2006 Dubai Government issues property law that legalises foreign ownership of properties in pre-designated areas.
2007 A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency visits North Korea for the first time since the country kicked inspectors out in 2002.
2012 A tour bus slams into a tunnel wall in the Swiss Alps in a horrific accident, killing 22 children and six adults.
2013 Xi Jinping becomes president of China.
2014 Veteran British Labour politician Tony Benn dies at the age of 88.
2016 Russian President Vladimir Putin orders the Defence Ministry to begin the withdrawal of Russian forces from Syria.
