Photo/Illutration Investigators from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office prepare to enter the Abe faction’s office on Dec. 19. (Hikaru Uchida)

Prosecutors made several indictments on Jan. 19 over the funding scandal in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, but none of the suspects was a political heavyweight.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has primarily targeted three factions in the ruling party in its investigation into unreported political funds, particularly the one once led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The person responsible for accounting in the Abe faction was charged with failing to properly include income and expenditures from the fund-raising parties in the faction’s political fund reports.

Upper House member Yasutada Ono and his aide were also indicted on charges of failing to report funds returned from the faction as income. Ono was an Abe faction member who has now left the LDP.

All three were indicted without being taken into detention.

Lower House member Yaichi Tanigawa, another former Abe faction member who left the LDP, and his aide were given summary indictments.

But top officials of the Abe faction were not indicted. They include Hirokazu Matsuno, who resigned as chief Cabinet secretary, and Koichi Hagiuda, who stepped down as LDP policy chief, after it came to light that the Abe faction had accumulated a slush fund of close to 600 million yen ($4 million) that was used to provide “kickbacks” to faction members.

Investigative sources said prosecutors could not find definitive evidence that the Abe faction accounting official conspired with top members to conceal the money gathered through fund-raising parties.

A third Abe faction member, Yoshitaka Ikeda, was arrested on Jan. 7 along with an aide on suspicion of violating the Political Fund Control Law. The arrests were made because prosecutors felt the two were destroying evidence.

Ikeda is suspected of failing to report about 48 million yen in income, while Ono is accused of not reporting about 50 million yen. Tanigawa is believed to have failed to report about 40 million yen.

The three are suspected of receiving the largest amount in kickbacks among Abe faction members.

Prosecutors on Jan. 19 also indicted, without arrest, the former official in charge of accounting at the LDP faction headed by former Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai.

An aide to Nikai and the former official in charge of accounting at the LDP faction once headed by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida were given summary indictments.

Related News