Company-funded luxury office of ex-NOVA boss unveiled

Collapsed English-teaching company NOVA Corp. has unveiled the luxury office used by its former boss Nozomu Sahashi to the public, showing a bathroom overlooking the night scenery and expensive champagne and scotch whisky lined up at a bar counter.

The 330-square-meter office, which has its own sauna and tea room, is located on the top floor of a 20-story building in Osaka’s Naniwa-ku. The 70 million yen makeover of the apartment and the monthly rent of 2.7 million yen was picked up by NOVA, but hardly any NOVA employees have been there.

“I had heard rumors about it, but I never imagined it was as luxurious as this,” one surprised company employee who saw the office said.

A lawyer serving as a protective administrator for NOVA, which has sought court protection following its collapse, said the office was a symbol of how Sahashi had used the company’s profits to his advantage.

“We decided to unveil it as a symbol of Sahashi’s misappropriation from the company,” the lawyer said.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20071031p2a00m0na027000c.html