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Sell-off spurs Livedoor slideGroup's value dives more than $3.5 billion following investigation
 Livedoor founder Takafumi Horie is shown above in this May 2005 file photo. QUICKVOTERELATED
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSTOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Takafumi Horie's Livedoor group has seen its combined market worth plunge by more than $3.5 billion this week, following Monday's raid by investigators probing alleged securities law violations. Along with flagship Livedoor, the listed group firms include Livedoor Marketing Co., Turbolinux Inc. and Media Exchange Inc. All went limit-down on Thursday amid an avalanche of sell orders, according to the Nihon Keizai's Nikkei news network. As a result, the Internet services group's combined market capitalization has fallen by 416.4 billion yen ($3.59 billion) between Tuesday and Thursday, it said. But two other listed Livedoor companies, mail order firm Cecile and used-car seller Livedoor Auto, attracted some buying Thursday, the Nihon Keizai reported. Livedoor shares were again hit with a wave of sell orders Friday. The shares are now down 52 percent since news of the investigation broke. The Tokyo Stock Exchange will decide soon on whether to delist Livedoor, according to the exchange chairman, the Associated Press reported Friday. Separately, Cecile said Friday that Livedoor Marketing president Fumito Okamoto had opted not to take up the post of Cecile president he had been scheduled to assume that day, Kyodo news agency reported. Okamoto, 38, cited personal reasons for declining, Kyodo reported. The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's office raided Livedoor's Tokyo headquarters and other locations on Monday on suspicion it may have released false information on earnings and on the 2004 acquisition of publishing firm Money Life by ValueClick Japan, a company that later became Livedoor Marketing. The investigation of the Livedoor group prompted a massive sell-down of Japanese shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Wednesday, raising volume levels so much that the TSE suspended the day's trading 20 minutes early because its computer systems were being overloaded. The Livedoor investigation has been complicated by the apparent suicide of an executive of a Japanese securities firm involved in Livedoor's deals. On Thursday, police said the executive, Hideaki Noguchi, had been found dead on the southern island of Okinawa. Noguchi, 38, was vice-president of H.S. Securities. Livedoor has been asked to submit to the Tokyo Stock Exchange by Friday the findings of an internal investigation into a number of its deals. On Thursday Livedoor said a preliminary investigation of the Money Life deal did not reveal any illegal activities. It defended its decisions and fund-raising steps, including the use of a share swap deal rather than a cash purchase. But according to a Nihon Keizai report on Friday, prosecutors are looking at six acquisitions made through stock swaps by Livedoor and Livedoor Marketing. In each case, the Livedoor group is believed to have taken over the target firms with cash funneled through investment partnerships, which were effectively under its control, before "officially" acquiring them through stock swaps, the Nihon Keizai said in a report. Prosecutors plan to question Livedoor CFO Ryoji Miyauchi and director Fumito Kumagai later on Friday, Kyodo reported, quoting "investigative sources." Under Horie, a media-savvy 33-year-old, Livedoor has rapidly built up a portfolio of nearly 50 Internet-related businesses. But Horie has ruffled feathers in conservative Japanese business circles through a failed attempt to take over the Fuji Sankei media group and an unsuccessful run for parliament in the September 2005 general election. 
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