Prosecutors and the Japan Fair Trade Commission raided an advertising agency dentsu inc and event production company Cerespo Co. on Friday.
This follows the arrest of ADK Holdings Chairman Shinichi Ueno in October on suspicion of bribing former Tokyo Olympic Committee member Haruyuki Takahashi with 47 million yen (about US$313,500) to select ADK as a marketing agent for the Olympic Games. Police raided the corporate headquarters of ADK Shares on the same day.
DentsuHakuhodo and ADK Holdings are three of Japan’s leading advertising agencies.
There are allegedly 26 rigged open bids from May to August 2018 for the rights to plan 56 test events, with contracts totaling more than 500 million yen (about 3.6 million US dollars). Nine companies, including six that have been sought, won the bids. The total value of signed contracts related to actual tests and events exceeds 20 billion yen (about US$144 million). Investigators are looking into possible collusion between the companies to decide in advance which companies would win the bids.
Police also raided the headquarters of the Sun Arrow toy company, after prosecutors accused Takahashi of accepting a total of 7 million yen (about US$47,000, previously reported as 8 million yen) in bribes from Sun Arrow to select the company as the authorized manufacturer of the Games toys. Police also issued a fourth arrest warrant for Takahashi for allegedly receiving a total of 54 million yen (about US$362,000) in bribes from ADK and Arrow of the Sun.
Police had previously arrested Takahashi three times on suspicion of accepting bribes related to Olympic sponsorships from three other companies: Aoki Holdings Inc., kadokawaY Daiko Advertising. Takahashi was also a senior managing director of the Japanese advertising agency and exclusive agent for the Japanese sponsors of the Olympic Games. dentsu inc
Sources: the mainichi, Asahi Shimbun
