Ex-Medical Univ. Chancellor Served New Warrant for Breach of Trust

Society

Tokyo, Feb. 3 (Jiji Press)--Kinuko Iwamoto, former chancellor of Tokyo Women's Medical University, was served a fresh arrest warrant Monday over fraudulent payments of consulting fees by the university, according to investigative sources.

Iwamoto, 78, is suspected of committing a breach of trust, allegedly making the university fraudulently pay a total of around 170 million yen in consulting fees on multiple occasions between March 2020 and September 2021 to a 68-year-old architect in relation to the construction of a new building for what is now the university hospital's Adachi Medical Center.

The university paid the architect roughly 184 million yen in total as consulting fees, when police believe it should have paid only slightly over 14 million yen.

Investigators believe that around 50 million yen out of the fraudulent payments was funneled to Iwamoto for personal use, and are investigating the flow of money in detail.

On Jan. 13, the ex-chancellor was arrested on suspicion of breach of trust over making the university pay a total of about 117 million yen between July 2018 and February 2020 to an architect for fictitious consulting work on the construction of a new campus building. She is believed to have used these payments to funnel some 37 million yen to herself.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]

Jiji Press