A Tokyo court on Wednesday sentenced the former president of major Japanese advertising agency ADK Holdings Inc. to a suspended prison term for bribing a Tokyo Olympic Games organizing committee executive in 2021.
The Tokyo District Court sentenced Shinichi Ueno, 69, to a prison term of two years, suspended for four years, after being accused of paying around 14 million yen ($100,000) to Haruyuki Takahashi, 79, who exerted influence over the committee's sponsorship and marketing contracts.
The ruling was one of a series of Tokyo Olympic bribery cases involving Takahashi, who has been charged with accepting bribes from Ueno and others in return for helping companies win contracts as Olympic sponsors or marketing agents.
According to the indictment, Ueno colluded with former senior ADK Holdings officials Shigeharu Hisamatsu, 64, and Toshiaki Tada, 61, to have their company selected as a marketing agent to solicit sponsors for the event.
They sent the money between November 2019 and January 2022 to a consulting firm headed by Takahashi, the indictment said.
Hisamatsu was handed a prison sentence of one year and six months, suspended for three years, and Tada was given a term of one year, suspended for three years. The rulings have been finalized.
Ueno, Hisamatsu and Tada were among the 15 people indicted for giving bribes to Takahashi. Nine of them, including the three, as well as a former chairman of major business suit retailer Aoki Holdings Inc., have been found guilty.
