Prosecutors suspect the possible involvement of a tourism company and an operator of pachinko “pinball” parlors in the widening bribery scandal surrounding a Lower House member and a Chinese company, sources said.

The tourism company based in Sapporo was behind a trip to Hokkaido taken by the family of Diet member Tsukasa Akimoto, 48, who was arrested on Dec. 25 on suspicion of receiving about 3.7 million yen ($33,820) in bribes from 500.com, a company based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, that was trying to open a casino in Japan.

Prosecutors believe the expenses for that trip covered by 500.com constitute 700,000 yen of the total bribes, the sources said.

The Tokyo-based operator of pachinko parlors is linked to an entertainment company run by a former aide to Akimoto.

Akimoto has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. He left the ruling Liberal Democratic Party following his arrest.

According to the sources, the tourism company was leading a movement to bring an integrated resort project, including a casino, to Rusutsu village in Hokkaido.

In January 2018, the company announced that it would receive an investment of 150 billion yen from 500.com and other companies.

Akimoto at the time served as a vice minister of the Cabinet Office and presided over issues related to integrated resort projects, including casinos.

An official of the tourism company invited Akimoto to one of its resort facilities in Hokkaido.

According to the sources, Akimoto, who was born in Tokyo but spent his childhood in Kagoshima Prefecture in Kyushu, responded: “I grew up in a southern land and have never skied. I don’t know the winter world.”

In mid-February, he and his family visited the resort, where the company official introduced Akimoto to the village mayor and others.

On one evening, they held a meeting at a hotel in the resort.

“They said to me (at the meeting), ‘We want to enter the integrated resort business,’ and I said, ‘Good luck,’ and that was it,” Akimoto said in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun before his arrest.

500.com, which operates online casinos, planned to use Akimoto’s influence to open a casino in Rusutsu, the sources said. Akimoto knew about the company’s intentions and accepted the invitation to the resort, they said.

The Chinese company shouldered the Akimoto family’s travel expenses, including airfares and accommodations.

Masahiko Konno, 48, the company’s corporate adviser, was one of three officials of 500.com who were arrested on Dec. 25 on suspicion of giving bribes to Akimoto.

Konno is believed to have served as the go-between for Akimoto and the Sapporo tourism company.

Konno is also suspected of being one of the company officials who handed 3 million yen in cash to Akimoto at his office in the Diet Members’ Building in Tokyo in late September 2017.

The Lower House was dissolved on Sept. 28, and Akimoto was preparing for his election campaign in October.

Konno has posted on social media a picture he took in Akimoto’s office, boasting of his closeness to the lawmaker.

He has also posted pictures taken with many other Diet members.

Investigators believe Konno frequented the Diet Member’s Building, the sources said.

The Tokyo District Court on Dec. 26 set a 10-day detention period until Jan. 4 for Akimoto, Konno and the two other 500.com officials for their arrests.

Prosecutors on Dec. 26 also searched the Tokyo company that operates a nationwide chain of pachinko parlors.

The company has had business transactions with an entertainment company run by Akimoto’s former policy aide, according to the sources.

Prosecutors are apparently looking into the flow of money surrounding the entertainment company.

The former policy aide established the entertainment company after Akimoto lost in the Upper House election in 2010, according to a register of companies and other documents.

Akimoto once served as a consultant to the company. Since 2017, another former aide has been the company’s president.

The pachinko company had signed a consultant agreement with the entertainment company for the period between around 2017 and autumn 2019.