Ex-Event Firm Chief Guilty over Tokyo Games Bid-Rigging

Tokyo, Sept. 16 (Jiji Press)--Tokyo District Court sentenced a former president of event management company Same Two Inc. to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, on Wednesday for bid-rigging related to the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2021.

The Tokyo-based company was fined 150 million yen. All six companies charged over Tokyo Games bid-rigging were found guilty at the district court.

According to the day's ruling, the former Same Two president, Masao Umino, predetermined around February-July 2018 companies winning orders for the planning and operations of the Olympics and the Paralympics as well as test events preceding the Tokyo Games, in collusion with a 59-year-old former deputy head of the organizing committee of the international sporting events and others.

Presiding Judge Shoji Miyata at the Tokyo court pointed out that Umino was asked by major Japanese advertising agency Dentsu Group Inc. to submit bids for orders related to swimming and other events in the Games.

The judge said the defendant recognized that his firm would have a better chance of winning the orders by acting in line with the intentions of Dentsu Group and the organizing committee.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]