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A former Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker was indicted Friday on charges of failing to report millions of yen in connection with the political financing scandal that has rocked Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party.
Yoshitaka Ikeda, a member of the House of Representatives. (Joint)
Yoshitaka Ikeda (57), a member of the House of Representatives, was indicted amid a series of criminal cases against members of the Diet and accountants for violating the Political Funds Control Act. His secretary, Kazuhiro Kakinuma (45), was also indicted.
Mr. Ikeda is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party’s largest faction, and is suspected of having unreported funds amounting to approximately 600 million yen in the five years starting in 2018.
He is suspected of receiving approximately 48 million yen in slush money from a faction and colluding with his secretary to enter false income amounts in the political funds report of a fund management organization.
Ikeda, a former vice minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, was arrested in January, and the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office said the measures were taken out of fear that he might be attempting to destroy evidence.
Officials said a computer in Mr. Ikeda’s office was found destroyed, possibly with a screwdriver.
At issue in the scandal are funds raised by lawmakers to sell tickets to sectarian events in excess of their allotted quotas. These surplus funds are said to have not been reported or distributed to lawmakers.
Many people associated with the largest faction of the Liberal Democratic Party, led by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, are suspected of receiving the funds, but prosecutors have zeroed in on those who obtained large sums of money.
The Political Funds Control Act requires accountants to submit income and expenditure reports, and failure to do so is punishable by up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 1 million yen. If a lawmaker is suspected of colluding with an accountant, he or she could face criminal charges.
After the scandal was discovered at the end of last year, two other members of the Abe faction, as well as former and current accountants from three factions, including the Abe and Kishida factions, were indicted without arrest or summary indictment.
However, prosecutors have not brought charges against the Abe group leaders due to lack of evidence of collusion.
The Kishida faction and the Abe faction are among the LDP’s internal groups that decided to disband in the wake of the scandal.
Related coverage:
Prosecutors indict several Liberal Democratic Party faction members over funding scandal
Prosecutors to file charges against Kishida faction in Liberal Democratic Party funding scandal
Ruling party lawmaker Ikeda arrested on suspicion of slush funds
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