Sahashi Indicted for Embezzlement
Ex-NOVA president Nozomu Sahashi has been indicted for embezzlement of corporate funds.
Sahashi, 56, allegedly diverted around ¥320 million from an employment benefit fund last July 20 to reimburse tuition fees for people who canceled their contracts for language courses.
Sahashi has admitted to the allegations, changing his previous stance that he had believed that part of the funds could be used for the company's operations, according to investigative sources.
The prosecutors meanwhile suspended indictment of a former Nova employee arrested along with Sahashi over the suspected embezzlement. The investigators determined that Toshihiko Murata, 49, played only a subordinate role in the scheme, the sources said.
According to the indictment, Sahashi transferred the ¥320 million — held in reserve specifically for employee welfare programs — to a bank account of a Nova affiliate.
It seems that he has changed his tune about thinking that the money in the fund belonged to NOVA.
Sahashi initially told investigators he had "thought the money belonged to the company" and therefore it could be used to finance the firm's operations, the sources said.
He changed his statement and is now offering an apology for using the money "entrusted" to the company by the employees, the sources said.
He's offering an apology? It's a bit late for that. I think Sahashi has finally realized that he has reached the end of the line.
Comments
end of the line
Hopefully he'll soon reach the end of another line - one tied into a noose...
penalty
so the next step is to await judgement.... for 320 million yen, not any of the other goings on. a few tears shed for the tv cameras and an apology has been the sentence in past. I wonder about this time.
I am for Sahashi getting torn
I am for Sahashi getting torn a new hole in prison . . . but come on everyone, do you honestly think he will face time?? let's not be naive here. it took the japanese gov't almost a year to arrest this guy, and you guys are holding your breath waiting for him to be prosecuted?? honestly, being an instructor who got screwed due to Sahahi's stupidity, I would want him to go to jail for screwing over the Japanese staff, foreign instructors, and NOVA students, but at the rate of how slowly the hand of justice is moving, I don't think Sahashi is going to face time
I hope they just don't slap
I hope they just don't slap his wrists with a suspended sentence but make him actually do time.
Watch, he'll receive no jail
Watch, he'll receive no jail time and a minimal fine. What's even better for him is that he will be able to get funding and start all over again. You think I'm kidding? Oh no, look at what happened with Yoshinoya and Pepper Steak. Those restaurants were bankrupt before they were restructured by new investors. It will be the same for Nova. Students are still taking lessons. Whether or not there will be new students, well, that is the make or break point this year.
Nova is GONE, AMEN to that, and meantime, get over it !
Nova is GONE, long GONE. I don’t know why, so long after its thoroughly deserved demise, it is still so topical.
I guess it treated people so badly when it was alive, and burned to the core so many people as it was dieing, it still remains a hot item on the agenda for discussion. I am surprised though, because it is literally dead and buried, and has been for ages.
I think if most old Nova instructions had actually taken the time to study their website, before signing up, they would have known they were signing up to work for a company laid on a foundation of pure bullshit. I mean to say, what a joke their website actually was.
I have never read such atrocious crap in my entire life.
Seems there are a few bitter Nova ladder climbing, pretend corporate diehards still in the mix, in here, and on other sites, and with nothing else to hit out at, they are now attacking the Union movement.
The joke of the matter is, when Nova was alive and kicking, they all went out of their way to bag the Union and limit membership, and now that Nova is extinct, they are all going out of their way to say “The Union is useless and did nothing”.
Isn’t that what you Nova jerk offs wanted to begin with?
Oh well, I don’t care, I am just glad that ridiculous place, and everything it stood for, has been wiped from the face of planet earth.
Yes, there really is a God.
Amen
The Union
"and now that Nova is extinct, they are all going out of their way to say “The Union is useless and did nothing”. "
Well, thanks for your mail. It certainly is the bucket of water in the fact I needed. Now, for the next challenge....
Agree about the Union. I NEVER rated them, never asked them for help, so don't feel any animosity towards them whatsoever, despite the fact that if they hadn't challenged the Shakai Hoken thing, the Wasps nest would probably still be hanging in the tree, and I'd be earning good money, and getting 15,000 yen raises every year. Thanks Bob!
And thanks anonyomous. You are right. Nova was pure bullshit, and it's probably better that it's gone, but I liked working there, and have good memories. But what I'm doing now is ok.... I give blowjobs to drunken sailors around Kobe harbor, until 5am every morning. I've found my vocation!
Nova ijiots
On one hand, they say the union is weak and did nothing. Well, they are certainly weak and do very little. Yet, on the other hand, you say the same weak, do-nothing union managed to bring Nova down and create the biggest consumer wipe out in Japan since the war???!!!
For what it is worth, read up a bit on what the "experts" said about the fall of Nova. There were different factors. I never heard a single one seriously mention the union! Nova was rotten to the core and nothing was going to save it other than a major change in management and strategy. English schools fail all the time. They don't need unions to take them down and that is not what took Nova down.
I refuse...
to be lectured to, by someone who can't spell "idiot".
I THINK TECHNICALLY ITS IS; "IDJIT"
which is a bastardization of "idiot"....acceptable to Southern Americans..and Bugs Bunny fans..
Okei.
It mait be pronawnsd "IDJIT" but it is spelt "IDIOT", yoo colonial clod. If wee roat evrythin the wei wee pronawnsd it, weed hav a reely hard taim.
Hav a nais dei.
Uhm...NO
i dont think there is a standardization to bastardizations.
Lesbo..Lezbo
Dyke.. Dike..
anyway...if the almighty wikipedia redirected me to "idiot"
thus;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idjit
then i suppose its probably somewhat formalized as a variation on "idiot"
would one not say?
if one does NOT say, I would say stick your head up your nice bum.
Don't forget the rules
Hiya, CJ,
Well you know, you can use our language, but it is us English people, as the ONLY true native English speakers in the world, who decide what is, and isn't correct English.
If you want to bastardize it beyond recognition, fine, but don't expect me to accept it.
Why don't you just invent your own language, Canglish? EH? Or even better, learn a real native Canadian language, like Anishinaabe. Then, and only then, you'll be able to lecture me.
Or... you could just go and stick your head up a moose's arse.
(notice I didn't say "Ass". "A moose's ass" is a donkey, that belongs to a moose.
Oh Thank You Kind Sir For The Gift Of Your Language.
Since Aussies and Americans and Canadians and Kiwis were all mostly English to begin with, (check out our provincial flags, they all have Union Jacks in them) it seems somewhat ridiculous to suggest that YOU are the only folks entitled to modify it.
I am merely explaining an American variation on "Idiot"..(I come to bury Caesar, not praise him)
Please dont be Oh So Patrician..Its why the Engish were so despised before the Yanks got too popular to loathe.
The Chillout room
I'm only joshing.
Oh I Know..Me Too..
stay cool bro.
The Union Reply
You really liked working there? Most people actually really hated it.
It wasn’t the Shakai Hoken that fumigated the wasps’ nest, but rather, as it turns out, a small time lawyer, who was representing the interests of irate customers (initially just one customer), who were not getting what they paid for, and were getting monies stolen via Nova’s refund scam.
Once the Japanese themselves starting whining, that bought in METI, and the rest is history.
The impact on Nova’s bottom line was catastrophic.
METI, when all is said and done, with full knowledge of Nova’s bubble business model, indirectly demanded that Nova essentially withdraw from the industry.
I don’t believe your latest job, blow job or not, but it is an interesting analogy. I can’t see much difference between doing that, and working for the Nova, to be honest. Higher risk of catching an obnoxious disease I guess, but one in the same otherwise.
SH sunk Nova? Really?
Hmm. Interesting view point.
I thought Nova, who broke the law and played foul with customers, forced its own inevitable bankruptcy.
Good money? Well, some people are easily satisfied. Nova salary, which did not budge forward one inch over 20 years relative to hours worked (went the other way in fact, if you think about pay rates per hour, once the mumbo jumbo in their pay slips was deciphered), could hardly these days be called interesting money, even for a slightly post adolescent pimply faced kid fresh out of college. A decade and a half or so ago, well maybe, and even then, only just.
I have read a lot of bullshit about the S H issue apparently resulting in Nova’s demise (which was all a load of poppycock), mainly from two sources (both moderator’s on the moth-balled NR discussion group site in yahoo).
By the time SH came in, Nova had already cooked its goose. If you think with or without SH, Nova would still be here today, and the very rare Nova addicted long term workers (who represented the smallest fraction possible of the total Nova workforce) would still be getting pay increases, then you are living in fantasy land. You might want to read the newspapers, and do some catch up.
Unions. Membership should be made compulsory, in order to over-come the natural inclination “I am only here for a little while, so what does it matter”, which has always been the limiting factor to effective Union representation in the language sector in Japan.
Learning from the atrocities of companies like Nova, your local embassy should be partitioned to demand compulsory Union membership for all language sector workers under their national umbrella, or form a joint governing body themselves.
Saruhashi. I am surprised he came up with the bail money. He had claimed he had used his personal monies to prop up the company, and there is no financial institution in existence who would have loaned him that cash. Go figure. They guy has no conscience or common decency at all.
Hmm patronizing wanker alert.
The Union only ever wanted Nova to go down. Well they succeeded.
I don't give a **** what you think of Nova wages. I was happy with my salaty. Year after year of 15,000 yen rises, until Shakai Hoken incident, and then I NEVER got a pay rise again.
I'm not saying that SH alone bought Nova down, but I can't be arsed correcting presumptions others make. But SH started it all off, in my opinion, which, in my opinion, is a very important opinion.
Union membership should not be compulsory, because it's a free world the last time I checked, and Union is a bye-word for unrealistic, and impotent. Most people are neither - hence low union membership rates. Despite being a Union member in Britain, as a factory worker, I think it's a blue collar institution. White collar unions are a joke. It's like aristocrats demanding equality.
Sorry if this mail seems a bit antsy. No offence. It's just that its a hot day, and I really feel like punching somebody. Any volunteers?
Wanker Alert ??????
If the Union wanted Nova to go down, which I very much doubt, well that puts them in a queue made up of countless thousands of people (nearly everyone who, prior to bankruptcy, had already been through the famous Nova revolving door).
Nova being dusted bought a smile to a hell of a lot more faces than it bought tears to, although the smiles were I admit predominantly on the faces of those who had already got the hell of out of that fucked up nutcase farm.
When was the SH incident? I don’t recall accurately. Pretty close timing to Japanese consumer driven heat further stimulating Sahashi’s cotton picken fingers, I do recall.
When METI finally stepped in, well, that was years after the embezzling prick saw the writing on the wall. The real question is, what other funds did he embezzle? You ain’t seen nothing yet!
If you want to punch someone, have a good read of the Nova website (referred to previously in here), and then punch yourself in the head, for being yet another dimwit who signed up for a stint in dickeadsville to begin with.
Year after year? What kind of person are you? A sucker for punishment? Anyone who spent more than six months there, let alone a year, has something terribly wrong with them. They did not call Nova a “revolving door” because it kept and retained the best, that’s for sure.
Just take a look at the very few slime balls who did play the Nova game and “rose to the top”, and then punch yourself in the head, again, for being such an idiot and fool.
What kind...
"What Kind of person are you?"
Oooh, the melodrama. Idiot? Fool? Stop projecting your self hatred onto me.
Anyone who spends six months in a job could be called a quitter. Me? Well Steady!!! They loved me, at Nova!!! But I had to leave, as they couldn't afford me, in the end.
But I loved working at Nova, me. F***ing brilliant. Tons of lovely birds (nurses from the local hospital, and uni students) they made the staff look like frigging pantomime dames, and that's f***ing saying summat. Different challenges (TOEIC, TOEFL, Kids, Business, MxM with Manic Depressives, prescribed Nova, by Doctors with a sick sense of humour). 375,000 a month, at the peak. Weekends off. Time to study, up to level three Japanese (ok not great, but better than most) for my M.A. and now my PhD. Falling for some amazing women (I know this offends many frigid puritans on these boards, but hey, it's called human nature apparently. I met some ace girls, and treated them well - no two timing, just good times. Developed my skills as a teacher, so now, running my own school, I benefit from alot of what I learned at Nova.
So, you know, despite wasting all those years, I have good memories.
Good Memories
I am so glad you have good memories (unlike most people), but unfortunately, for you, they are JUST memories. Nova Corporation is bankrupt and finished, and the engineer behind that now infamous palace of crapolla is about to go to prison.
But please, you enjoy your sweet memories.
Hardly anyone stayed on in Nova, because it was a retard's paradise, and that's why, they did give peanut pay rises to the very, very rare people who actually stuck around (on the ground scale, it added up to an insignificant amount, and it created the false impression there really was a "career" if you wanted it, even if one with zero job security).
How is you career going now, old chum?
Yes, I thought so.
WAIT!!!
"How is you career going now, old chum?
Yes, I thought so."
This suggests you heard an answer. It's called schizophrenia.
And thank you, kindly. The career is going ok.
Access to Girls Fringe Benefit of working for Nova
The reason most people did not hang around at Nova is because they were not interested in working as a pretend teacher (so they could later in life, when faced with no options, open up their own pretend school), and additionally, they got no career satisfaction out of picking up girls, let alone bragging about it.
However, it is wonderful, that those who aspired to opening up their own school, based on the wonderful “teaching skills set” provided by Nova, have been able to do so, and meantime, have apparently been able to continue their sexual conquests in Japan.
How much did your on-line MA and PHD cost? $100?
Anyone who has ever done an ounce of decent or credible study in teaching English as a second lanuage, or as a foreign language, certainly would not have anything nice to say about what Nova offered, certainly not in any academic sense.
I suppose the person who wrote the post could be just taking the piss.
Yes, must be so, if not, what a wanker.
Well I have, and I do
"Anyone who has ever done an ounce of decent or credible study in teaching English as a second lanuage, or as a foreign language, certainly would not have anything nice to say about what Nova offered, certainly not in any academic sense."
Bollocks!
Thankyou also, for trying to second guess my life, career, and motivations.
I guess amateur psychologist is a much more worthwhile, and lucrative career than Eikaiwa teacher, then.
And yes, I WANK! Apparently, you don't. Great. Take it from a wanker, of great experience, you're missing out, on a whole world of leisure time enjoyment, and possibilities. I spent an evening with Hotaru Akane and Maki Tomoda, last night. All for the price of four beers.
Enjoy your masturbation free zone of a life.
Les.
Exactly!
Funny, balanced and always the right tone. I enjoy reading all your posts very much.
Not Bollocks at all !
"Anyone who has ever done an ounce of decent or credible study in teaching English as a second lanuage, or as a foreign language, certainly would not have anything nice to say about what Nova offered, certainly not in any academic sense."
Above is not bollocks at all. Nova, in particular, is laughed at in the real world of lanuage instruction.
You wank? Congratulations. I am happy that you enjoy wanking. Seriously, good for you. You do it for a job, and you do it at home. Well done. I like consistency.
Meantime, keeping on enjoying Eikaiwa (masturbation), along with all the other kiddies killing time in Japan. Be my guest.
Wanker ? Watch your language !
That's not a very nice thing of you to say Julia, especially with the Pope on tour ! I thought you actually threw in the towel at Nova, before the famous SH incident you refer to.
Anyway...........
I said it before, but I think
I said it before, but I think it's worth repeating:
A lot of former instructors thought we wouldn't get 80% of our wages compensated. We did.
Former instructors also thought that they would get shafted out of unemployment benefits. They didn't, as far as I know.
The letter of the law has been obeyed in Japan in regards to the Nova fiasco, so I really think that if the law says that Saruhashi should go to jail for what he did, then he will and it's not as if he's a major business figure - he and his company were economic lingering farts in the wind . I personally would be satisfied if he's never allowed to work again, at least not in a position of authority.
Well said Anonymous..
i think people were just really worried..they had been boned by NOVA for so long, they forgot that Japan ISNT Nova...you know 300 times bitten..twice shy and all that.
Saruhashi out on bail
http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/ex-nova-chief-out-on-y50-m...
I found this on the Japan today site today. How about that.
happens in every country
happens in every country
How to recover lost wages
I was back in America when Nova collapsed so I never returned to Japan since I didn't have a job. I heard it's still possible to recover my lost wages outside of Japan. Does anyone know how I can do this? Any info on it would be helpful.
Lost wages.
I don't know the exact procedure, but these links might help:
http://www.letsjapan.org/nova-instructors-finally-paid.html (scroll down)
http://www.nova.ne.jp/information/qa-staffs-en.html#qa0220-01
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