Takafumi Horie JAPAN TIMES PHOTO

Lawyers for a disgraced Internet mogul insisted on his innocence Feb. 22 at the start of a court appeal of his securities fraud conviction in a scandal that destroyed one of Japan's highest-flying Internet startups.

Takafumi Horie (pictured), former CEO of Internet service provider Livedoor, was found guilty last March of inflating earnings' reports and sentenced to more than two years in prison. Four other former executives were also found guilty.

Horie was not present for the first hearing of his appeal at the Tokyo High Court, court spokesman Takahiro Ito said, refusing to release any further details of the court session.