Arrested Tokyo 2020 sponsor executive says he gave cash to Japan's ex-PM Mori - Sankei
01/09/2022 05:04
TOKYO, Sept 1 (Reuters) - The former chairman of Tokyo
Olympics sponsor Aoki Holdings 8214.T has told prosecutors he
gave 2 million yen ($14,300) in cash to the head of the Games'
organising committee, former prime minister Yoshiro Mori, the
Sankei daily reported.
Hironori Aoki, who was arrested last month for suspected
bribery involving another Tokyo 2020 executive, told prosecutors
he handed Mori the cash over two occasions while the latter was
head of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee, the paper said on
Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Prosecutors also arrested former member of the Tokyo 2020
Olympics board Haruyuki Takahashi and two other executives on
suspicion of bribery last month. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2ZT09E
Reuters was not able to contact Aoki for comment. The Tokyo
District Public Prosecutors Office said it would not comment on
the cases.
Mori, 85, was prime minister for just over a year from 2000
to 2001 and headed the Tokyo 2020 organising committee from
January 2014 to February 2021, when he resigned after comments
he made about women talking too much sparked uproar.
Reuters was not immediately able to reach Mori or his legal
representative for comment. Mori denied receiving the cash to
Sankei, the newspaper reported.
Mori, a powerful figure in Japanese sports, and Takahashi
were central to Tokyo's bid to win the Olympics, a campaign that
began in 2011.
Reuters reported in 2020 that a non-profit entity run by
Mori was paid more than $1 million by the Tokyo Olympic bidding
committee during the campaign to secure the Games. The largely
unknown entity ceased all activity at the end of December 2020,
it said on its website at that time.
A staff member at the institute told Reuters at the time
that the money was used to hire a U.S.-based consulting firm and
two consultants to support the bid. Mori later said he was not
directly involved in the non-profit's finances and that he did
not know about the money.
($1 = 139.4900 yen)
(Reporting by Daniel Leussink
Editing by Chang-Ran Kim, Robert Birsel)
((daniel.leussink@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter:
@danielleussink))