Japan's high-profile former Internet entrepreneur Takafumi Horie was found guilty and sentenced two and a half years in prison on Friday by the Tokyo District Court, public broadcaster NHK reported.

The founder and former president of Internet firm Livedoor was charged with accounting fraud and other securities law violations, which Horie has been denying. He is expected to file an appeal as he has already expressed such an intention.

The 34-year-old former entrepreneur, known for his aggressive business style, was accused of manipulating the firm's financial figures for the year to September 2004 and spreading false information on the acquisition of a publisher the same year by one of its subsidiaries in order to raise the unit's stock price.

Horie and several Livedoor executives were arrested in January 2006 and the court battle started in September. The case has attracted intensive media attention ever since Livedoor headquarters was searched about one week before the arrest.

During the trials, former Livedoor chief financial officer Ryoji Miyauchi admitted to the charges against him and staged a dramatic showdown by testifying against his former boss in court.

Horie's defense team argued that the investment partnerships were acting independently and that the former executives handled the profits appropriately. It also said the testimony of Miyauchi and former Livedoor executives other than Horie is unreliable.

Horie, a university dropout, became well-known in Japan for his bold challenges to Japan's business traditions since he set up Livedoor's predecessor Livin' on the Edge Inc. in 1996.

The former Internet mogul ran in the House of Representatives election in September 2005 after he accepted Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's request to run against a Liberal Democratic Party rebel, though he failed to win a seat.

Editor: Yan