Lawmaker Admits to Taking Cash from 500.com in Japan Bribery Case

Japanese lawmaker Mikio Shimoji admitted on Monday to taking cash in campaign contributions from Chinese online sports lottery operator 500.com amid a bribery scandal that has rocked Japan as it is looking to introduce legal casino gambling.

Mr. Shimoji is a member of opposition party Nippon Ishin no Kai and sits in the Lower House of the Japanese Diet, known to be the country’s bicameral legislature. At a news conference in Naha, the lawmaker said that he is yet to decide whether he would resign from his political party.

He is one of six lawmakers who were questioned by Tokyo prosecutors over the alleged receipt of money from 500.com since the bribery scandal broke in December. And Mr. Shimoji is the only one of all questioned lawmakers to have admitted to taking money from the Chinese gambling company.

The case came to light after Liberal Democratic Party member Tsukasa Akimoto was arrested by Tokyo prosecutors on December 25 for allegedly accepting JPY3.7 million from 500.com to help the company win a license for an integrated casino resort in Hokkaido.

Mr. Akimoto maintains his innocence, but the scandal has only been snowballing into a larger and larger global story since it first surfaced.

Political Contributions

Mr. Shimoji said Monday that an employee at his office in Naha had taken an envelope with JPY1 million in October 2017 from a 500.com adviser. The lawmaker’s office did not declare the money in its funds and expenditure reports for election campaigns and other political activities, something Mr. Shimoji said that he regretted extremely.

The lawmaker, along with other fellow legislators who were questioned in relation to the bribery case, also noted that he had never tried to persuade any government agency to favor 500.com in its bid to win a casino license in Japan. He further revealed that he would return the money to the 500.com adviser he had received it from.

Mr. Shimoji and four other lawmakers appeared on Tokyo prosecutors’ radar screens last week after Katsunori Nakazato, who served as a 500.com adviser, told investigators that he had handed JPY1 million to each of said five lawmakers around September and October 2017. It was around that time when 500.com also delivered JPY3 million in cash to Mr. Akimoto.

Mr. Shimoji and the other four lawmakers were questioned voluntarily last week, but his four colleagues denied the bribery allegations leveled against them.

Mr. Akimoto will remain under arrest until at least January 14. No other lawmakers were detained in relation to the bribery scandal. However, three 500.com employees, including the head of the company’s Japanese operation, were detained and will remain under detention for now.

Japan is targeting mid-2020s opening of its first integrated casino resorts, but it is to be seen whether and how the bribery case would affect its plans.

Mr. Akimoto was previously tasked with overseeing the drafting of a policy that aimed to set out the rules under which casino licenses would be granted. Four of the five questioned lawmakers were members of a cross-party group that promoted the legalization of casino gambling in the Diet.

Source: Nippon Ishin lawmaker Mikio Shimoji admits taking money in casino scandal

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on the day’s top casino news stories

Related Articles

Related News