Accountants of Japan's ruling party facing house arrest amid kickback scandal

TOKYO (Bernama-Sputnik): Investigators of Japan's Public Prosecutors Office are planning to place accountants of two major factions of the country's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) under house arrest amid the ongoing kickback scandal in the country, reported Sputnik quoting Japanese broadcaster NHK.

The two factions under investigation were previously led by former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and former LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai.

In December 2023, Japanese media reported the factions were suspected of failing to report a total of 600 million yen (US$4.141 million) in revenue over the past 5 years, but the alleged sum has so far risen to a total of 800 million yen, NHK reported, adding that Abe's faction, in particular, was suspected of concealing 600 million yen and Nikai's faction was suspected of hiding 200 million yen.

While being questioned by prosecutors, the accountants of both factions confirmed that the money had been reflected in the documents, the report said. In this regard, a special department of the prosecutor's office is planning to place the accountants under house arrest on suspicion of violating the law on the regulation of political funds.

In December 2023, five senior members of Abe's faction were questioned by Tokyo prosecutors for failing to declare extra fundraising income, NHK reported, adding that those questioned included former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, former LDP Diet Affairs Committee Chairperson Tsuyoshi Takagi, former LDP Upper House Secretary-General Hiroshige Seko, former Education Minister Ryu Shionoya and former LDP Policy Research Council Chairperson Koichi Hagiuda.

All of them later lost their posts due to the scandal.

At the same time, the prosecutor's office has found no signs of possible conspiracy between the five politicians and the accountants, and most likely will not split the investigation into two separate cases.

The scandal around underreported funds of Japan's LDP broke out in early December. Five factions of the ruling party allegedly received the money at various fundraising events.

To prevent bribery, Japanese law demands that the names of donors and the amounts of the raised money be written in a reporting book if the funds collected at one event exceed 200,000 yen.

However, the investigation into the case has shown that the ruling party allegedly did not reflect all the collected funds either in the income of the politicians or in its reporting book.

Moreover, if a politician collected more than the established norm of 1 million yen, they allegedly received a kickback for the excess, with the amounts also not reflected either in party documents or in the reporting book. - Bernama-Sputnik