A major business wear company under investigation for alleged bribery to rig an Olympic Games sponsorship had created an internal list of requests it had for a board member of the organizing committee, sources said.

Hironori Aoki, 83, the founder and former chairman of Aoki Holdings Inc., denies allegations that he had bribed the board member, Haruyuki Takahashi, 78, to help the firm become an Olympics sponsor.

He voluntarily told investigators that he provided consultancy fees to Takahashi hoping it would grant him access to his social network of influential people, sources said.

Takahashi told The Asahi Shimbun that he “never served at the convenience of (Aoki) by receiving money.”

But sources told The Asahi Shimbun that the apparel maker wrote up a wish list of things it wanted Takahashi to do, such as help speed the screening process for Olympics-related business so it could start selling apparel bearing the Olympic logo.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office widened its investigation on July 28, searching related facilities for the third straight day.

At around 9:55 a.m., five prosecutors arrived at the headquarters of Aoki Holdings Inc. in Yokohama.

It comes a day after prosecutors raided Aoki’s home, as well as the corporation liquidating the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which is located inside the Tokyo metropolitan government’s building in the capital’s Shinjuku Ward.

On July 26, prosecutors had searched Takahashi’s home in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward, as well as the offices of his consultancy firm.

The headquarters of Dentsu Inc., an advertising giant where Takahashi previously served as a senior managing director, located in Tokyo’s Minato Ward, was also raided by prosecutors on July 26.

Prosecutors have already seized materials from those sites and are now using them to build a bribery case against Takahashi.

The apparel company had signed a deal with Takahashi’s firm in fall 2017 and paid a monthly retainer of 1 million yen ($7,400) for roughly four years until the Games ended in August 2021, sources said.

Takahashi’s firm received about 45 million yen from Aoki Holdings, according to the sources.

In October 2018, Aoki was named an “official supporter” of the Games. It sold about 30,000 business suits featuring the Olympic emblem as officially licensed products.

Prosecutors believe the funds provided to Takahashi were a reward for helping the company become involved in Olympics-related business.

After the apparel maker signed the official supporter deal with the organizing committee in October 2018, Aoki, the then chairman, instructed senior officials of the company to “sort out what we want (Takahashi) to do because we made a consultancy contract,” according to sources.

As the Games’ sponsor, the apparel maker planned to sell suits and blazers featuring the Olympic emblem as officially licensed products.

But that required approval from the organizing committee.

It was up to the organizing committee’s marketing division, which reviewed sponsors’ sales plans and their use of products.

Some staff at the clothing company grew frustrated at the review process because it “was slow.”

So, the staff decided to include a “speedy review process” in the list of requests for Takahashi.

They produced a paper list and submitted it to Aoki’s chairman, sources said.

The company started selling licensed products from August 2019 and sold about 30,000 suits and blazers.

It also produced uniforms for referees and other Games staff.

The marketing division of the organizing committee had many temporary staff who were employees of Dentsu, Takahashi’s old workplace.

Prosecutors are investigating into whether Takahashi tried to influence those staff members to help Aoki.

The organizing committee dissolved at the end of June, about a year after the Games ended.

The corporation liquidating the committee currently has about 20 staff working on settling its remaining business activities, such as property and debt.

“We understand that (the committee’s) various contracts had been conducted fairly and properly,” it said in a statement.