Prosecutors summarily indicted an accountant of the Liberal Democratic Party¡¯s bloc in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Friday for underreporting over ?60 million ($386,000) of the group¡¯s income and expenditure.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor¡¯s Office alleged that Hidekatsu Yajima, 72, underreported ?35 million in revenue from the sale of tickets to fundraising parties in 2019 and 2022, and ?28 million in spending for donations and subsidies. Yajima is accused of violating the political funds control law, which governs the reporting of how such funds are collected and spent.
Friday¡¯s indictment comes in the wake of a political funds scandal that embroiled LDP lawmakers on the national level that surfaced in December 2023, appearing to involve similar wrongdoings, albeit at a smaller scale, among the party¡¯s assembly members.
Prosecutors have reportedly decided not to indict LDP Tokyo assembly members implicated in the case because the unreported amount for each of them was below the indictment threshold of ?30 million.
At fundraising parties, each of the LDP¡¯s 30 assembly members was given 100 tickets worth a combined ?2 million. Each had a sales quota of 50 tickets.
Over 20 members submitted reports for the sale of tickets for parties held in 2019 and 2022 up to their respective quotas but additional proceeds were pocketed as kickbacks and were not reported.
Income from the tickets sold within the quotas were reported in the political funds report, which Yajima was responsible for, in line with the law.
The LDP¡¯s Tokyo chapter is considering pulling endorsements for members who were involved in the kickbacks during the Tokyo assembly election expected in June, which would force them to run as independents.
The assembly¡¯s LDP bloc was expected to release the results of an internal investigation into the unreported funds later Friday.
Following news of Yajima¡¯s indictment, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike told reporters that she hasn¡¯t heard about the specific details of the case, but urged relevant assembly members to offer an explanation.
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