Japanese prosecutors raided the offices of Livedoor and Horie's home in January 2006 on suspicion of securities fraud. The government cited several instances of apparent market manipulation, including a Livedoor subsidiary announcing it would acquire a company that it already controlled, using misleading investment partnership accounting and artificially inflating the value of Livedoor stock through stock splits to fund acquisitions. There were also rumors that Livedoor was involved in money laundering for the "yakuza" or for politicians, as the company had been found to have moved large sums of money into fictitiously-named Swiss bank accounts. The veracity of the suspicions aside, many smelled conspiracy given the timing of the action. It was seen as a political move by defenders of the status quo to punish Horie for daring to challenge them, and to discredit him and the business practices he had come to represent, which Horie's opponents considered distasteful and "un-Japanese".