Ex-Tokyo Games Official, 3 Others Arrested over Bid-Rigging

Tokyo, Feb. 8 (Jiji Press)--Japanese public prosecutors on Wednesday arrested Yasuo Mori, a former senior official of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics organizing committee, and three other people on suspicion of bid-rigging for contracts related to test events for the Tokyo Games, according to informed sources.

Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's special investigation squad arrested Koji Henmi, 55, former assistant chief of the sports department of advertising giant Dentsu Inc., Yoshiji Kamata, 59, senior managing director of event company Cerespo Co. <9625> and Masahiko Fujino, 63, senior managing director of event company Fuji Creative Corp., in addition to 55-year-old Mori, the former deputy chief of the Tokyo Games committee's department in charge of operating the sports event.

The four are suspected of prearranging winners of bidding for contracts to plan the test events, in violation of the antimonopoly law.

This is the second criminal case linked to the organizing committee, after former committee executive Haruyuki Takahashi, 78, was charged with accepting bribes for the selection of Tokyo Games sponsors.

Companies that won bids for planning the test events at respective competition venues were given negotiated contracts for operating the test events and the Tokyo Games competitions as well. The contracts were worth some 40 billion yen in total.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]