President of Japanese Internet firm Livedoor Co. Takafumi Horie stepped down on Tuesday and the company decided to have its senior vice president Kozo Hiramatsu to fill the post.

The resignation came a day after Horie was arrested together with the company's Chief Financial Officer Ryoji Miyauchi, Director Fumito Okamoto and Livedoor Finance Co. President Osanari Nakamura on suspicion of spreading false financial information to deceive investors and violating securities laws.

Hiramatsu, 60, was named president during a board meeting in the afternoon, according to Kyodo news service.

In the meantime, Livedoor said 28-year-old Director Fumito Kumagai, who oversees the company's accounting and financial matters, will be given the right to represent the company.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange said it will limit daily trading hours for Livedoor stock to 1.5 hours starting Wednesday to prevent a continuing flood of sell orders from disrupting transactions on the bourse.

Livedoor, whose stock fell by the daily limit of 100 yen (about 0.87 dollars) to 596 yen (about 5.18 dollars) last Tuesday, is on suspicion of transferring profits from three affiliates to cover a deficit of about 1 billion yen (about 8.70 million U.S. dollars) for the business term ending September 2004.

Source: Xinhua