Hiroshi Igarashi, president of Dentsu, a Japanese advertising agency, has admitted to the Japanese prosecutor's office manipulating contracts for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, held in 2021 as a result of the pandemic.
This is the latest scandal to plague the sporting event, after Haruyuki Takahashi, a former head of the organizing committee, was accused of accepting bribes for the assignment of sponsors for the event.
The president of the advertising giant acknowledged last Friday in a voluntary interrogation that his company was responsible for rigging contracts for the organization of test events for the Olympic Games, sources close to the case told the Japanese agency Kyodo.
Prosecutors could file a formal case this week against Dentsu and five other companies suspected of violating antitrust law, after receiving complaints from the Japan Fair Trade Commission. Prosecutors have already detained several company executives, as well as Yasuo Mori, deputy CEO of Tokyo 2020, who was arrested on suspicion of rigging the award of 26 bids to host championship test events, worth more than 500 million dollars.
According to sources of the investigation, Mori would have coordinated with senior officials and people linked to Dentsu to draw up a list of preferred companies to which to assign the tenders and for them to win. Although Mori initially denied the accusations, he later acknowledged his involvement after Dentsu employees testified about his collusion.
The test events of the Olympic Games. Tokyo 2020 were held between 2018 and 2021, prior to the postponed international competition, and were intended to give organizers and sports federations the opportunity to test the operation of the events.
