A Tokyo Olympic organizing committee executive told the Games’ advertising agency that Aoki Holdings Inc. was “already” chosen as a sponsor--even though it had not yet officially started the selection process, sources said.

The former board member, Haruyuki Takahashi, 78, was arrested on suspicion of receiving 51 million yen ($372,000) in bribes from Hironori Aoki, 83, former chairman of the apparel company, and other company officials.

Tokyo prosecutors believe Takahashi had leveraged his own network of connections when pushing for Aoki Holdings to secure Games-related business.

Investigators see the exchange of money as a quid pro quo for working on three requests from the company. One was that it would be chosen as a sponsor of the Games. Another was that it would be approved for selling licensed goods.

The last was to exempt it from additional sponsorship fees associated with the postponement of the Games due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to sources, Takahashi met with Aoki and others in January 2017 about a potential sponsorship deal with the Games.

Takahashi proposed that the business wear company should become an “official supporter,” the lowest-ranked sponsorship deal of the three tiers available to it, which Aoki accepted.

The advertising giant Dentsu Inc. was designated by the organizing committee as the full-time marketing agency for the Games and was commissioned to obtain sponsors.

Takahashi, who used to be a senior managing director at Dentsu, arranged Aoki’s sponsorship on his own and set the fees at 500 million yen--below the market rate, sources said.

Then, around July 2017, Takahashi told Dentsu, “Aoki was already chosen” as a sponsor before the company conducted the official selection process.

Takahashi said the same thing to the organizers who made the final decision, sources said.

In October 2018, Aoki officially became an official supporter under the category of “business and formal wear.”

But Aoki executives had felt the company received its official sponsorship offer when they met with Takahashi in January 2017.

The marketing division for the Games oversaw reviewing and approving officially licensed goods featuring the Olympic emblem.

Many Dentsu employees were temporarily assigned to that division.

The former chairman of Aoki mentioned the sales of officially licensed goods, such as business suits, when he met with Takahashi in September 2018, according to documents created by the company that contained multiple requests to Takahashi.

After the meeting, Aoki, as well as Katsuhisa Ueda, 40, a senior managing director of the company who was arrested for bribery, complained to Takahashi that the application was taking a long time to gain approval, according to sources. They asked him, “What should we do?”

Takahashi then introduced Ueda to a person in charge of the marketing division who was a junior to Takahashi during his Dentsu days. He also urged this person to “speed up the screening process.”

Aoki began to sell suits and jackets in August 2019 after it had received approval.

The company ultimately sold about 30,000 items.

The Olympics were originally scheduled for the summer of 2020 but were postponed for a year due to the pandemic.

Sponsors were asked to pay additional “support money” because of the delay.

After Aoki was told by organizers to pay 100 million yen, the company contacted Takahashi.

“I want it to be zero,” Takahashi told Dentsu.

The company ultimately agreed to pay 10 million yen.

The apparel company kept recordings and notes of the meetings between the company officials and Takahashi.

A consulting company run by Takahashi received about 51 million yen in consulting fees from October 2017 to March this year under the contract it signed with Aoki.

Aoki told investigators the contract included Olympic-related business, and Tokyo prosecutors have identified the entirety of the funds as bribes.

Takahashi has denied the charges.

“The consultation fees have nothing to do with the Olympics,” he said.

Takahashi told The Asahi Shimbun before he was arrested that he did not provide any favors to Aoki.

Aoki, the former chairman, has also said the consultation fees were not bribes, sources said.