The arrest of four people for the case of fraud in the framework of the Tokyo Olympics was carried out by the prosecutor’s office of the Japanese capital, on February 8, reported Kyodo News.
Among those arrested was the former executive director of the organizing committee, Yasuo Mori. Investigators determined that he played a prominent role in falsifying contract offers to host Olympic events.
In addition to Mori, Kaji Hemmi, the former head of a large advertising agency Dentsu, as well as the representatives of Cerespo Yoshiji Kamata and Fuji Creative, Masahiko Fujino, were arrested. These last companies have received contracts for preparatory activities.
According to the investigation, both Mori and Hemmi used a pre-compiled list of companies when choosing partners for the Olympic Games. Kyodo sources specify that the staff of the organizing committee exchanged letters with representatives of companies that allegedly influenced the outcome of the auction.
During the first interrogations, the officials denied their involvement in the bid rigging, however, after the Dentsu officials confessed, they confessed.
The prosecution believes that the results of 26 open auctions held in 2018 were falsified. Nine companies were then awarded contracts, including Dentsu and another advertising giant, Hakuhodo.
At these auctions, 538 million yen (294 million rubles) were raffled off. According to the researchers, the total amount of contracts for holding pre-game events and the competitions themselves as part of the 2021 Olympic and Paralympic Games amounted to 40 billion yen (22 billion rubles).
Pregame events were held from 2018 to 2021, where organizers tested security, crowd control, and other practices used in the Olympic Games.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike denounces Mori’s arrest “extremely unfortunate” and added that it had asked the liquidation corporation to continue cooperating with the investigators.
The Japanese Olympic Committee has officially stated that it takes the arrest seriously. “We do not know the details, but we will closely follow the developments”– says the press service of the department.
Recall that the scandals surrounding the one-year postponed Tokyo Olympics began with the arrest of the former head of the organizing committee, Haruyuki Takahashi. He faces four counts of accepting bribes from event sponsors totaling some 198 million yen (108 million rubles). According to investigators, in exchange for bribes, he helped companies obtain endorsement contracts for the production of advertising and other products.
Takahashi was also a member of the management team of the Dentsu advertising corporation, and as part of the organizing committee, he was in charge of choosing the sponsoring companies.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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