英語対策：最後の力試し(2)

　ついでにもう一つ。

　やっぱりAsahi.com から。

Tougher law sought for business fraud

In response to financial scandals involving Livedoor Co. and other companies, the government Friday adopted a bill designed to protect investors by stiffening penalties and requiring greater disclosure.

If enacted, the financial product transaction law would strengthen penalties for falsifying financial statements, manipulating stock prices or spreading false information.

Individuals who commit any of those violations would face imprisonment of up to 10 years or a fine of up to 10 million yen. That compares to the current maximums of five years or 5 million yen.

Companies would face a maximum fine of 700 million yen, up from 500 million yen.

Prosecutors suspect that Livedoor founder Takafumi Horie and other former executives falsified the company's financial statements and spread false information to manipulate the market.

The bill also prescribes administrative punishment for placing a large number of buy orders for stocks only to cancel them before they are contracted.

The act, designed to inflate stock prices by misleading other investors into believing that an issue is actively being traded, has also been blamed for overloading computer systems at stock exchanges.

Tougher penalties will go into force as early as this summer if the Diet passes the bill during the current ordinary session.

The government will implement the penalties 20 days after the law is promulgated. Other stipulations will take effect within one and a half years after the promulgation.

The new rules include tighter regulations on investment partnerships, which Livedoor executives are accused of abusing. If a partnership targets individual investors, one member would be required to register as its representative managing funds and soliciting subscriptions.

A provision of the bill would require institutional investors to disclose information on new share purchases more frequently. Institutions that acquire more than five percent of a listed company would have to compile data every two weeks and file a report within five trading days.

Currently, they are required to compile data every three months and file a report by the 15th of the fourth month. That schedule has come under fire because the holdings of institutional investors, such as the one led by former bureaucrat Yoshiaki Murakami, can remain unknown for months.

The law would also tighten regulations on share purchases made to gain control of a company. An investor would have to conduct a public tender offer if it intends to own more than a third of a company, through share purchases both on and outside the stock market.(IHT/Asahi: March 11,2006)

　同じく時間がないので、和訳をつけられません。

　最後の最後の力だめしだと思って「全体を200字で要約」してみましょう。制限時間は最大「40分」程度。

　それでは、原稿用紙とシャープペンシルを用意して。なければ、普通の紙でもいいです。

　はい。

　シャーペンは持ちましたか？　

　では。

　よーい。

　はじめ！