Japanese prosecutors arrested again on Tuesday a former member of the Tokyo 2020 board implicated in a bribery scandal around the Olympic Games, on allegations he received bribes from a sponsor company, the Nikkei newspaper reported.
The Nikkei reported that the publisher Kadokawa Corp paid 70 million yen ($498,000) to a company linked to the then Tokyo 2020 board member Haruyuki Takahashi, who prosecutors suspect helped the company be chosen as a sponsor of the Tokyo Olympics.
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Prosecutors later arrested two senior officials at Kadokawa for suspected bribery, and raided its headquarters, media reported.
An official at Kadokawa said the company was checking the facts but declined to make any further comment. The company’s shares were trading down 5% in the early afternoon.
Takahashi is already in custody after being arrested last month on suspicion of bribery surrounding the Games. The re-arrest means he is facing longer detention so prosecutors can question him further.
Reuters reported in 2020 that Takahashi, who was paid millions of dollars to work on Tokyo’s successful bid for the Olympics, said he played a key role in securing the support of a former Olympics powerbroker who was later suspected by French prosecutors of taking bribes to help Japan’s bid.
Takahashi told Reuters at that time his work included lobbying International Olympic Committee member Lamine Diack, to whom he gave gifts, including digital cameras and a Seiko watch. He said then that there was nothing improper with the payments he received or with the way he used the money.
Diack, once one of the most powerful people in athletics, was jailed in France in 2020 for corruption. He died last year at the age of 88.
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