AIJ president was sure he could recoup losses

But I was confident of recovering it

WOW that is a good excuse.

I was operating in the belief that I will ‘win’ some day. I would have been able to rally if I had 10 billion yen more.

Sounds like a gambling addict.

I often say the same thing while losing my a** in Vegas.

"If I just had just $xxxxxx more". The voice of a gambler.

Jails are full of criminal masterminds who never dreamt they would be caught.

Do I have a problem with him losing the money? No, not really, that's the risk you take when you invest. What he's dodging is that he lied to clients, and that's his crime.

Picture this. Kaz in his own words:

"Hello everyone. We have a new member joining us today here at Gamblers Anonymous. His name is Kazuhiko. He's known locally as Kaz "No Cash" Asakawa, and he's been having a few problems recently. Kaz, welcome. Would you like to say anything to our group?"

I'm not engaging in gambling

"Now come on Kaz, you know the rules. The first step to recovery is to admit your mistakes."

I'm not engaging in gambling. I also do some research work.

"Kaz, you have to be honest if you want to recover. You were gambling. You can admit it. We're your friends. I 'researched' horses for 15 years and still lost everything. Now, what's your story?"

We made miscalculations in investment and things went bad as a result.

"No, no, no. Gambling is a perpetual miscalculation, Kaz. Don't use euphemisms."

I was operating in the belief that I will 'win' some day. I would have been able to rally if I had 10 billion yen more.

"We all think like that, Kaz. We all do. What makes you think you are any different to the rest of us here? .....What's that you say? Oh - because you weren't using your own money? Ahh, other people's money. People saving for their retirement. Oh, well we can't do anything for you here Kaz. What you really need is a good long stretch behind bars."

Every gambler who loses money comes up with that excuse....but most hit rock bottom before they harsh reality hits them that they are broke (or in debt far, far beyond their means)

"I would have been able to rally if I had 10 billion yen more"

Yeah right, yet in the meantime you were still happy to take 4.5billion out for yourself and your sidekick instead of not lying to your investors.

earned a combined 4.5 billion yen in the nine years to March 2011 including “rewards” for successful investments.

This gives a new definition to "successful investments".

The best is that they'll keep the loot. Sorry, “rewards for successful investments".

The guy says he was not gambling but that's EXACTLY what he was doing, with other people's money! Instead of being locked up the guy is giving interviews.

Ah, yes, the gambler's fallacy: if I keep putting money down, my chances of scoring a hit increase. In fact, each time is an independent event statistically and the chance does not change. Playing the market is a bit different, of course because buying stock has the potential to influence others to buy, but his mental state was that of a gambler, obviously. Just like Nick Leeson.

"I would have been able to rally if I had 10 billion yen more." Me, too, mate. Just give me half of it and I'll show you a rally.

I believe him

How did this fool get to be president, surely soemone realised he was a goose earlier.

A losing, dreaming, gambling, fool paid way too much to fritter other peples money away and then lie about it, lock his arse up for 10 years and confiscate his bank account and assest to recover some of the losses.

"other people's money"

OPM!

That sounds like a Pachinko excuse to me.

He says he's not engaged in gambling. I believe him.

He's safely tucking away his money and risking other people's money on the results of his personal reaseach. Thing is, his reaserch seems to be faulty, to say the least.

It sounds like he was messing around with Hedge Funds which can make a lot of profit but you really have to be information savvy. Is it possible he could have made back at even greater returns; sure it is. However, investors should also known that anything that is giving you back high returns involves high risk. If you here someone telling you can make over a certain percentage on your money you should do your own investigating. Sounds like this guy didn't hedge against this high risk. It is a shame because Japanese people need to invest more instead of lettting their money sleep in the bank, why there is very little compounding interest here riddles me. The government has robbed them, the banks are screwing them, it is just hard for many Japanese people to know what to do with their money.

Anyway we would have to see this guys investing track record to know if it really was possible that he could have made the money back. There are plenty of good sound investments to put your money into but if you are close to retirement you want to have a little more safety then most high return investments can offer.

oh yeah all i needed to do was martingale!