TOKYO, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Japanese advertising giant Dentsu Group Inc., five other companies, and a high-profile ex-Olympic organizing committee executive, among others, were indicted on Tuesday over alleged bid-rigging linked to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
The indictments followed a criminal complaint brought earlier in the day by Japan's Fair Trade Commission against Dentsu and some individuals including Yasuo Mori, former senior official of the Tokyo Games organizing committee, Koji Henmi, former assistant head within Dentsu Inc., and five other people.
Japan's anti-trust watchdog also filed a complaint with prosecutors over Hakuhodo Inc., Japan's second-largest advertising agency and rival to Dentsu.
The entities and individuals indicted are suspected of being involved in rigging bids for lucrative contracts worth 43.7 billion yen (319.54 million U.S. dollars) pertaining to the planning and running of Olympic test events and competitions.
Their indictments are based on their suspected violation of Japan's anti-monopoly law.
Mori was arrested earlier this month along with three others for his connection to the suspected and expansive bid-rigging operation.
Six company officials are also alleged to have been in cahoots with Mori to rig the bidding process in 2018, informed sources also said.
Hiroshi Igarashi, Dentsu Group President and CEO, has already told prosecutors that Dentsu wittingly participated in the bid-rigging for the quadrennial sporting event, delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Former executive of the organizing committee Haruyuki Takahashi, meanwhile, who previously worked as a senior managing director at Dentsu, has been indicted four times.
Prosecutors indicted Takahashi for receiving bribes to the tune of around 198 million yen (1.44 million U.S. dollars).
In return for the huge backhanders, Takahashi orchestrated companies becoming official sponsors of the Games or securing companies the rights to sell official merchandise.
Already plagued by this shocking bribery scandal, the ongoing revelations of bid-rigging involving the Olympic committee's own and well-known former executive, two of the country's best known advertising agencies, a host of other companies and top personnel, have further and irreversibly tarnished the imaged of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2021.
"The news of the indictments was deeply regrettable," said upper house lawmaker Seiko Hashimoto.
Hashimoto, who served as president of the now-defunct organizing committee for the Games from February 2021, said she feels "a great responsibility as the former head of the committee." ■