The Tokyo District Court has imposed huge financial penalties on major Japanese brokerage SMBC Nikko Securities over a stock manipulation case.

The court on Monday handed down a ruling on the company and one of six former senior employees indicted for illegally purchasing specific stocks in bulk to prop up their prices.

The court ordered the company to pay a fine of 700 million yen, or about 5.3 million dollars, and a surcharge of about 33 million dollars.

Presiding judge Kanda Daisuke said the defendants manipulated the market to secure short-term profits.

He said they proactively engaged in illegal transactions, and the company took no action even though officials in charge of compliance noticed the possible illegality.

He added that the company's functions to prevent law-breaking practice existed only in name.

The court also gave former SMBC Nikko executive officer Sugino Teruya a suspended prison sentence of one and a half years.

The schedules of trials for the remaining five defendants have not been decided.

SMBC Nikko Securities released a statement saying that the company takes the court decision seriously and apologized to customers and other stakeholders. It also said the company will implement measures to make improvements and prevent a recurrence of the incident.