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Ex-Sukarno accountant handed 4-year prison term for embezzlement

TOKYO (TR) – The Tokyo District Court on Tuesday handed a former accountant of television personality Dewi Sukarno a four-year prison term for embezzlement, reports Nikkan Sports (Mar. 5).

According to the ruling, Shuichiro Tsujimura, the 61-year-old former head of accounting for Office Dewi Sukarno, embezzled 22 million yen from the company between December 2013 and August 2016.

The prosecution sought a term of four years and six months.

During the trial Tsujimura lashed out at Sukarno. “I did not receive any salary,” the defendant claimed. “[The embezzlement] was revenge.”

In handing down the ruling, presiding judge Takao Ogawa said Tsujimura committed the crime “continuously and as an act of betrayal.” “Dissatisfaction with Miss Dewi is not a justifiable motive,” the judge said.

Before storming out of the courtroom, Tsujimura said, “I want you to show me what else I could have done.” In making his exit, he did not make eye contact with Sukarno, who was seated in the visitor’s gallery.

The embezzlement emerged during an internal investigation conducted in September of 2016. Upon the arrest of Tsujimura in 2017, police suspected that the defendant misappropriated a total of at least 170 million yen in cash from an account of the agency.

Outside the courthouse, Sukarno said that she was “satisfied” with the four-year term. However, she added, “I do not think [Tsujimura] has expressed remorse. When this [matter] was revealed, he was grinning. Then, when the police hauled him away in the paddy wagon, he was laughing. And finally, in the courtroom, he was falling asleep.”

Dewi Sukarno
Dewi Sukarno (Twitter)

Sukarno was born as Naoko Nemoto. In 1962, she became the third wife of Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia, after meeting him at a hostess club in Tokyo’s ritzy Ginza area.

Sukarno operates a cosmetics business and regularly appears as a commentator on television variety shows.