TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese prosecutors arrested a former Tokyo Olympics organising committee official and executives at three advertising agencies on suspicion of being involved in bid-rigging of test events for the Games, Japanese media reported on Wednesday.
Yasuo Mori, the former deputy executive director of the Tokyo 2020 Games Operations Bureau, was arrested for suspected breach of antitrust laws, the Asahi newspaper and other publications reported.
The media reports later said the prosecutors also arrested three executives at advertising and event-planning firms Dentsu Inc, Cerespo Co and Fuji Creative Corporation, a subsidiary of Fuji Media Holdings Inc.
Spokespersons at Dentsu and Fuji Creative declined to comment on the reports. A Cerespo spokesperson confirmed the arrest of its executive. “We are very sorry for causing trouble for our stakeholders,” the company said in a statement, adding it will fully co-operate with the investigation.
Reuters was unable to ascertain Mori’s contact details for a comment. The organising committee of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games was dissolved in June last year.
Local media have previously reported that Tokyo prosecutors late last year raided the offices of the country’s biggest advertising agencies including Dentsu, Hakuhodo Inc and ADK Holdings Inc on suspicion of their colluding to rig the bids and orders for Olympics-related events worth an estimated 40 billion yen ($305 million).
The bid-rigging investigation comes after a bribery scandal, in which Haruyuki Takahashi, a former member of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics board and before that a Dentsu Inc executive, was arrested in August on suspicion of receiving bribes from Olympic sponsors.
Executives from ADK, suits retailer Aoki Holdings and publishing firm Kadokawa have also been arrested in connection with the bribery scandal.
($1 = 131.2200 yen)
(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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Source: The Print
