Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible).

1) courts have meted 2) found guilty of insider trading and 3) a paltry 4) chicken feed to 5) to 30 months in prison 6) Tsutsumi’s fall from 7) the bigger they are 8) socially 9) fabricated hundreds of 10) his shady dealings

a) grace has been swift b) lined his own pockets c) suspended for four years d) ostracized e) $43,000 f) someone of his vast wealth g) non-existent shareholders h) out a strangely lenient sentence i) the harder they fall j) falsifying his company’s share records

Choose the correct word in each pair of italicized words.

Tycoon avoids prison over shares scam

Japanese courts have meted / bleated out a strangely lenient / lending sentence to a business tycoon who was once listed in Forbes magazine as the world’s richest man. Yoshiaki Tsutsumi was found guilty of outsider / insider trading and falsifying his company’s share records by a court in Tokyo. Presiding / Presidential judge Tsutomu Tochigi said: “The impact on society of crimes by such leading Japanese companies is very serious”. Judge Tochigi then proceeded to hand out a sentence wholly incommensurate with the gravity / depravity of the crime expressed in his summing up / down. He fined Mr. Tsutsumi a paltry $43,000 – peanuts / chicken feed to someone of his vast wealth – and sentenced him to 30 months in prison, suspended for four years. It is highly unlikely Tsutsumi will serve / service any of that time.

Tsutsumi’s fall from grace / prayer has been swift, although he does not quite prove the bandage / adage, “the bigger they are, the harder they fall,” judging from his light court sentencing. The judge said he was not sent to prison because he has already been socially pesticide / ostracized. Tsutsumi is the former chairman of Kokudo Corporation, the core / bore firm of the Seibu railway group, with holdings / helpings in construction, hotels, resorts and a baseball team. He is one of Japan's most powerful industrialists and has close connections to many of the country’s leading politicians. In September 2004, Tsutsumi lied about his steak / stake in his company and fabricated hundreds of non-existent shareholders. The subsequent sale of shares from his shady / luminous dealings lined his own pockets to the tune / tunic of $180,000,000.

 

10. Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms etc for the words ‘crime’ and ‘sentence’.

Crime	Sentence

· Share your findings with your partners.

· Make questions using the words you found.

· Ask your partner / group your questions.

 

Below is a list of famous tycoons. Tell your groupmates what you know about them.

· Bill Gates (Microsoft)	· Mohamed Al Fayed (Harrods)
· Richard Branson (Virgin)	· Roman Abramovich (Chelsea FC)
· Anita Roddick (Body Shop)	· Martha Stewart (lifestyle guru)
· Hugh Hefner (Playboy)	· Yoshiaki Tsutsumi (Industrialist)

12. What are the secrets to success? How do you become a business tycoon? In pairs / groups, talk about how important you think the following are. Rank them in order of most likely to make someone a tycoon.

___ Coming from a rich family	___ Being in the right place at the right time
___ University education	___ Entrepreneurial genius
___ Ideas	___ Ruthlessness

___ Hard work ___ Ability to lie and deceive

___ Luck ___ Ambition

13. Students A think a business tycoon whose illegal actions profit him $180,000,000 should go to prison. Students B strongly believe business leaders should not go to prison for lying about the financial affairs of their companies. Give arguments to each point of view.

 

14. In pairs / groups, write down questions about business fraud and suitable punishments.

· Ask other classmates your questions and note down their answers.

· Go back to your original partner / group and compare your findings.

· Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

15. You are part of a new committee to decide on clear sentencing rules for business fraud. In pairs / groups, write how serious you think the fraud is in the middle column and your punishments in the right hand column.

FRAUD	SERIOUSNESS	PUNISHMENT
Corporate accounting scandals
Credit card fraud
False advertising
Identity theft
Forgery of documents or signatures