Takafumi Horie, the former chief executive of Japanese internet services group, Livedoor, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he collaborated with former executives to falsify corporate accounts and boost the company’s share price.

The trial began in Tokyo this week with Horie denying that he manipulated Livedoor’s financial figures for the year to September 2004 and spreading false information in an attempt to raise the share price of a group subsidiary.

Horie, 33, is a self-made millionaire who built Livedoor into one of Japan’s leading internet companies,