Photo/Illutration Hidetoshi Tanaka, former board chairman of Nihon University, leaves his home in Tokyo’s Suginami Ward on March 29 for his sentencing trial at the Tokyo District Court. (Hiroyuki Yamamoto)

Hidetoshi Tanaka, the disgraced former board chairman of Nihon University, was given a suspended sentence and ordered to pay a fine of 13 million yen ($105,000) for tax evasion.

The Tokyo District Court on March 29 convicted Tanaka of violating the Income Tax Law by concealing 118.2 million yen in income, which included suspected kickbacks, and dodging tax payments of around 52 million yen.

His one-year prison sentence was suspended for three years.

Prosecutors had demanded a one-year prison sentence and a 16-million-yen fine.

Tanaka pleaded guilty to the tax-related charges. But he didn’t explain his relationship with the multiple companies that allegedly paid the kickbacks and two suspects accused of embezzling funds from Nihon University.

Prosecutors had questioned Tanaka in the breach of trust investigation, but they said they did not find evidence that showed Tanaka was involved in the scheme.

According to the indictment, Tanaka hid 10 million yen in income in 2018 and 108.2 million yen in 2020.

In his trial, prosecutors said Tanaka and his wife had accepted kickbacks from the multiple businesses connected to the university via Tadao Inoguchi, a former board member of the university and a close confidant of Tanaka.

Around 75 million yen, more than 60 percent of Tanaka’s hidden income, came from Masami Yabumoto, former chief of Osaka-based medical corporation group Kinshukai, prosecutors said.

Both Inoguchi and Yabumoto have been indicted on breach of trust charges. They are accused of causing the university to lose around 420 million yen through shady transactions involving Nihon University Itabashi Hospital in Tokyo’s Itabashi Ward.

The loss stems from contracts with companies selected to rebuild the hospital as well as for the procurement of medical equipment.

The 75-million-yen payment from Yabumoto to Tanaka included “thank-you money” concerning these transactions at the hospital, prosecutors said.

In their closing arguments, prosecutors said Tanaka had already been told in 2015 that he hadn’t reported some income, which forced him to amend his tax return.

They argued that this episode shows his “obvious lack of awareness of his duty to pay taxes.”

They also said the public is strongly critical of Tanaka because he exploited his position as chairman of a large and prominent university operator in committing his offense.

Lawyers representing Tanaka asked for a suspended sentence, saying he had no way to know about the breach of trust committed by Inoguchi and Yabumoto.

They also maintained that Tanaka was “not aware at all that he was receiving a portion of illegally gained income.”

The dates for the trials of Inoguchi and Yabumoto have not yet been decided.

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