101.   The company officials allegedly sought to keep the racketeers from making good on threats to disrupt annual shareholders meetings.

102.   The two groups said they plan to submit the merger plan to extraordinary shareholder meetings in mid-July.

103.   They usually threaten to disrupt annual company shareholders meetings by disclosing embarrassing business decisions or other sensitive information.

104.   Though shareholder meetings tend to be formalities where decisions are rarely made, Japanese companies feel their image depends on how smoothly they run.

105.   Nomura announced in early March that company executives had apparently entered into illegal trades to generate profits to pay off sokaiya, who threaten to disrupt company shareholder meetings.

106.   Sokaiya extort money from businesses by threatening to disrupt shareholders meetings.

107.   Sokaiyas, mostly gangsters, extort money from companies in exchange for not disrupting shareholder meetings.

108.   Such a stake could give an investor a controlling share in Snow Brand that would include the right to veto important resolutions at general shareholders meetings.

109.   The Commercial Code also prohibits companies from dealing with sokaiya, who extort money from companies in exchange for not disrupting their shareholder meetings.