Japan’s courts today handed down a new punishment in connection with bribery at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, this time on several executives of a stuffed animal company that manufactured pet products.
A Tokyo court on Tuesday sentenced former Sun Arrow company president Taiji Sekiguchi, 50, and his father and former company president Yoshihiro Sekiguchi, 75, to one year in prison for paying about 2 million yen (13,400 euros). ) to a member of the organizing committee in connection with commercial promotion.
No one will go to jail as the jail sentence has been suspended to three years of probation, according to details of the sentence published by the local Kyodo news agency.
The Sekiguchi are among 15 people charged so far in the investigation into bribes that executives from various companies allegedly paid Haruyuki Takahashi, 79, a member of the Tokyo Games organizing committee, to obtain sponsorship contracts and other licenses. to obtain. to the event.
Five of them have been found guilty so far, including a former president of the well-known Japanese chain of Aoki suit stores, an official sponsor who was in charge of, among other things, the uniforms of the Games’ staff.
Sun Arrow sold officially licensed plush toys of the Olympic and Paralympic Games mascots, Miraitowa and Someity.
The company is nationally known for its plush characters from Studio Ghibli animation studio films, and also sold merchandise of the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics mascot, among others.
In today’s ruling, Judge Yasuaki Takahashi ruled that the executives of the company asked Takahashi for favors, including the granting of the license, and in return gave him 1.5% of the total sales of the products sold under the same license on were brought to the market, paid.
The court decided to convert the prison sentence to probation, as both admitted to the charges and expressed remorse for their actions, he explained.
The public prosecutor had demanded a year in prison.
The investigation into this alleged bribery network came to light after the discovery of the receipt of alleged bribes by Takahashi, the central figure in the plot, who has consistently denied receiving any fraudulent payment, claiming that the amounts received were payments. .
Added to the bribes is the alleged manipulation of the bids for the organization of the Olympic Games test matches. of Tokyo 2020, events held a few months early to test the facilities and staff, which would have been awarded to a range of companies previously designated as a preferred group.
Source: El heraldo
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