Political fund scandal leads to arrest of lawmaker in Japan
Baku, January 7, AZERTAC
Tokyo prosecutors have arrested Lower House lawmaker Ikeda Yoshitaka on suspicion of violating the Political Funds Control Law, according to NHK World-Japan.
The prosecutors allege that Ikeda conspired with his policy secretary to falsify political funds reports.
Ikeda is a member of the LDP's largest faction, which was once led by the late Prime Minister Abe Shinzo.
The Abe faction is suspected of having failed to include in its political funds reports kickbacks it paid to the offices of member lawmakers who sold tickets to fundraising events in excess of their quotas.
The special investigation squad raided Ikeda's offices on December 27.
Informed sources say that Ikeda's office is believed to have received kickbacks worth about 48 million yen, or over 331,000 dollars, from the faction during the five-year period leading up to 2022.
Investigators suspect that Ikeda conspired with his policy secretary, who was in charge of accounting, to falsify the organization's political funds reports.
Ikeda has been elected to the Lower House four times.
He served as state minister of education from October 2021 to August 2022.
The total amount of funds that the Abe faction used as slush funds is suspected to have reached around 600 million yen in total over the 5 years until 2022, including income from events that lawmakers didn't deliver to their factions.
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