Photo/Illutration The headquarters of 500.com is located in this building in Shenzhen, China. (Yoshikazu Hirai)

The Chinese company suspected of handing bribes to a now-arrested lawmaker apparently distributed about 1 million yen ($9,200) each to five other Diet members in its bid to operate a casino in Japan.

An executive of the company, 500.com, confirmed the payments to the other lawmakers during questioning by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, sources close to the investigation said.

Katsunori Nakazato, a former member of the Urasoe city assembly in Okinawa Prefecture who served as an adviser to 500.com, also named the five lawmakers who received money, the sources said.

Investigators have found a memo in digital form that suggests the names of the Diet members and the amounts they received, they said.

Four of the lawmakers belong to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party while the fifth is a member of Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party).

Tsukasa Akimoto, 48, a Lower House member who was arrested on Dec. 25 on suspicion of receiving a total of about 3.7 million yen in bribes from 500.com, left the LDP after his arrest.

Nakazato and two others linked to 500.com were arrested around the same time on suspicion of giving the bribes to Akimoto.

Three others related to 500.com are suspected of bringing about 20 million yen into Japan without submitting the proper paperwork to customs authorities. Some of that money apparently went to Akimoto and the five other lawmakers.

Akimoto has denied receiving any money from the Chinese company. He at one time served as a senior vice minister in the Cabinet Office in charge of the program to open integrated resorts that also include a casino.

One of the five lawmakers received the money through a Japanese tourism company based in Sapporo.

The Political Fund Control Law bans donations from foreigners or foreign companies.

According to the sources, Zheng Xi, 37, a self-proclaimed vice president at 500.com who was arrested in the scandal, had asked about the Japanese political fund law in conversations with colleagues. Prosecutors believe that may account for why the donations were made through the Sapporo company.

The political fund report for 2017 for the political party branch headed by one of the five lawmakers shows a donation of 2 million yen on Oct. 2 from an executive of the tourism company.

The report also shows that three days later, the branch made a 1-million-yen donation to the branch headed by another of the five lawmakers.

The Sapporo company had plans to operate an integrated resort along with 500.com in Rusutsu, Hokkaido. That link has led prosecutors to suspect that the donations originated from the Chinese company, the sources said.

The lawmaker whose branch listed a receipt of the 2-million-yen donation told The Asahi Shimbun that 1 million yen was donated to the other lawmaker, and that money was part of the donation from the Sapporo company.

The two lawmakers denied any knowledge of donations from 500.com when contacted by the Asahi.

No response was obtained as of Dec. 31 from the three other Diet members.