The Osaka District Court on May 11 sentenced pop music producer Tetsuya Komuro to a suspended three-year prison term for swindling an investor out of ¥500 million in 2006 by attempting to sell copyrights for songs he no longer owned.

Tetsuya Komuro KYODO PHOTO

Presiding Judge Munehisa Sugita said that the 50-year-old Komuro committed the "very cunning" crime because he "was not able to forget his days of glory."

But Komuro "has fully repaid the damages and has reflected on (his actions)," Sugita said. "There is no social significance in sending him to prison."

The focus of the trial of the high-flying music producer, songwriter, composer and arranger in the 1990s was whether the court would give him an actual prison term. Komuro has repaid the sum plus arrears totaling ¥648 million.

It is rare for a defendant to receive a suspended sentence in a fraud case.