Tokyo – Japan’s greatest promoting company and 5 different corporations have been indicted on Tuesday for allegedly violating an anti-monopoly regulation, in a corruption scandal over bid-rigging throughout the Tokyo Olympics.
The indictment adopted the arrest this month of a senior Tokyo 2020 organizing committee official and three others who have been accused of rigging a string of Olympic Games-related tenders.
Dentsu Group president Hiroshi Igarashi has admitted to Tokyo prosecutors that his agency is liable, in keeping with native media.
Prosecutors unveiled costs towards the corporate in addition to main promoting companies Hakuhodo and Tokyu Agency, and occasions operators Same Two, Cerespo and Fuji Creative Corp.
Seven firm executives and officers have been additionally named within the indictment, which didn’t specify who labored for which agency.
The companies and executives ‘colluded to limit one another’s enterprise exercise with regard to the awarding of contracts’ for Olympic check occasions, a press release from prosecutors stated.
Their actions ‘went towards the general public curiosity and successfully restricted competitors’.
Dentsu Group stated it took ‘the scenario very significantly, and we sincerely apologize for the difficulty’ attributable to the scandal.
The firm added that it has established an exterior committee of specialists to probe the case and requested wage returns from 5 of its present and former officers.
Tokyo prosecutors arrested former 2020 Games official Yasuo Mori this month for allegedly violating the anti-monopoly regulation, together with three different businessmen.
The 4 allegedly rigged a string of open aggressive bids and restricted tender contracts for Olympic occasions, reportedly value a complete of $300 million.
Prosecutors are additionally investigating claims a former Tokyo 2020 board member took cash from corporations in change for Olympic partnership offers.
Haruyuki Takahashi was arrested for allegedly pocketing bribes that reportedly amounted to almost 200 million yen.
Companies implicated within the bribery instances embrace a go well with retailer, a publishing agency and a merchandise firm licensed to promote comfortable toys of the Games’ mascots.
The former president of ADK Holdings, Japan’s third-largest promoting company, has pleaded responsible to providing Takahashi not less than 14 million yen.
In December, a former government from main clothes firm Aoki Holdings additionally admitted in courtroom that he provided cash to safe sponsorship rights, in keeping with nationwide broadcaster NHK.
The instances have forged a shadow over Sapporo’s bid for the 2030 Winter Games, prompting the northern metropolis to halt its marketing campaign and arrange a nationwide ballot to evaluate assist.
‘It could be really regrettable if there have been unfair actions in bidding linked to the Tokyo Games,’ prime authorities spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno advised reporters on Tuesday as stories of the brand new indictments emerged.
Questions had been raised over impropriety across the Tokyo Games even earlier than the Covid-disrupted occasion befell in summer season 2021.
The former head of Japan’s Olympic Committee, Tsunekazu Takeda, stepped down in 2019 after French prosecutors launched an investigation into corruption allegations linked to Tokyo’s Olympic bid.