TOKYO – A man suspected of handling brokerage loans involving the former secretary of a former lawmaker and a company not registered as a money-lending firm told prosecutors he handed over a total of around 10 million yen (about $ 87,900) to a former member plan, the Mainichi Shimbun found.
The man, in his 60s, is said to have repeatedly provided money to former House of Representatives member Kiyohiko Toyama, 52, a member of the ruling coalition’s junior partner Komeito. The money was reportedly handed over over about a year from September 2019, when Toyama was deputy finance minister.
The revelation came during the man’s voluntary questioning by the Tokyo District Attorney’s Office’s Special Investigation Unit, and they now appear to be carefully examining the reasons why the money was provided.
The man is a former advisor to Techno System Co., a solar-related company in Yokohama. The special investigative unit arrested and indicted members of the company, including its chairman, on fraud and other charges.
In August, prosecutors raided Toyama’s home and other locations linked to an alleged violation of the cash lending law, on the grounds that individuals, including the former Toyama secretary, were involved in the brokerage. loans without recording the money lending activity related to the Japan Finance Corporation (JFC) special loans for coronavirus. JFC is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Finance, and the subject of the search warrant was the alleged broker.
According to concerned parties, as of April 2020, the man received requests for quick loans from several financially troubled companies. He reportedly introduced the companies to JFC officials with the help of Toyama’s former secretary, with whom he had a close relationship. The man allegedly took money from Techno System and other companies and handed it over to Toyama.
In total, the man is said to have negotiated a hundred loans, some of them being made early. While it is possible that the money was a reward for brokering the loans, it is also said that some of the money was provided before the special loan system was set up, and prosecutors are investigating carefully about the reasons for the funds.
The man told the Mainichi Shimbun that he could not discuss the details. When Toyama’s home was raided in August, the former lawmaker said he never received any money from the man.
Toyama resigned as lawmaker in February after another scandal.
(Japanese original by Kazuya Shimura, Yujiro Futamura, Ai Kunimoto and Tomonori Matsuo, Tokyo City Information Department)
