Photo/Illutration Investigators with the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office carry boxloads of documents from the Koto Ward office of Lower House member Tsukasa Akimoto on Dec. 19. (Takuya Tanabe)

Prosecutors suspect that money illegally brought into Japan by a Chinese company involved in casino operations was given to an aide of a ruling party lawmaker, sources said.

In a rare move, investigators with the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office on Dec. 19 searched the offices of the lawmaker, Lower House member Tsukasa Akimoto of the Liberal Democratic Party.

They confiscated documents from his office in the building for lawmakers next to the Diet building as well as from his office in the capital’s Koto Ward, which he represents.

In a tweet uploaded on Dec. 19, Akimoto, 48, denied any involvement in the case in which officials of the Chinese company brought more than 1 million yen ($9,000) to Japan without filing the necessary papers.

Such an act could constitute a violation of the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control Law.

The Chinese company is headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, and operates internet casinos and sports lotteries.

It established a Japanese subsidiary in July 2017 and had been making moves to set up casinos within an integrated resort area in either Okinawa Prefecture or Hokkaido.

Between August 2017 and September 2019, Akimoto served as a senior vice minister in the Cabinet Office. He was in charge of overseeing the integrated resort program until October 2018.

In August 2017, Akimoto participated in a symposium in Okinawa Prefecture related to the integrated resort program. The chief executive officer of the Chinese company also spoke at that symposium.

Akimoto has said that a former aide asked him to join the symposium, which was the first time he had any contact with someone from the Chinese company.

Prosecutors have also searched the Tokyo office of the Chinese company in connection with the possible violation of the foreign exchange law.

On Dec. 7 and 8, investigators searched the Tokyo residences of two former aides to Akimoto.

Akimoto and his former aides have also been questioned on a voluntary basis by investigators.