Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Jan. 11 addresses the first meeting of a new body set up by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to discuss political reform. (Takeshi Iwashita)

Prosecutors plan to charge former accounting officials at two factions in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party over political fund reports that failed to list money gained through fund-raising parties, sources said.

An indictment is also expected against an aide to LDP heavyweight Toshihiro Nikai in a separate funding case, they said.

Prosecutors suspect a former accounting official at the Kishida faction failed to report about 30 million yen ($203,000) in income and expenditures between 2018 and 2020, the sources said.

The faction returned part of revenues from fund-raising parties to faction members who exceeded their quotas for sales of tickets to the parties, the sources said.

The former official excluded more than 20 million yen from overall revenues because it was not clear which member lawmakers sold those party tickets, the sources said.

In voluntary questioning by prosecutors, the former official admitted to failing to list the income and expenditures on the faction’s political fund reports, adding that the revenues were used for the faction’s operating expenses, the sources said.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office’s Special Investigation Department is considering filing a summary indictment against the former official as early as Jan. 19 and seeking a fine, the sources said.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who headed the faction until Dec. 7, told reporters on Jan. 18 that the faction had said the money went unreported through “accumulated clerical errors.”

He said he was not aware of the unreported money while he belonged to the faction.

Kishida also said the faction will apply to the internal affairs ministry by the end of Jan. 18 to correct its political fund reports.

Prosecutors also suspect the Nikai faction failed to list about 200 million yen in revenues from fund-raising parties on its political fund reports over the five years through 2022, for which the statute of limitations has not expired, the sources said.

The faction excluded the money because that portion exceeded ticket sales quotas the faction assigned to member lawmakers, the sources said.

In voluntary questioning, the former accounting official admitted to failing to report the revenues, the sources said.

Prosecutors plan to charge the individual, but not through a summary indictment, because of the larger amount of money involved, the sources said.

The aide to Nikai, who was once LDP secretary-general, faces a summary indictment over a false reporting offense in violation of the Political Fund Control Law, the sources said.

Prosecutors suspect Nikai’s office concealed more than 30 million yen in revenues from the faction’s fund-raising parties that exceeded his ticket sales quota over the five years through 2022 without paying the money to the faction, the sources said.

The sources said Nikai was not found to have been involved in the false reporting.

Nikai’s office should have first paid the money to the faction, then received refunds from the faction and listed the amount on its political organization’s report as “donations” from the faction, the sources said.

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