Dentsu Group ordered to pay ¥300 million over Tokyo Games bid-rigging
The Tokyo District Court on Thursday ordered advertising giant Dentsu Group to pay ¥300 million in fines as sought by prosecutors over bid-rigging related to the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in 2021.
The court also sentenced Koji Henmi, 57, former assistant head of the sports department of core subsidiary Dentsu, to two years in prison suspended for four years. The prosecution had demanded a two-year prison term.
In past court hearings, the prosecutors said that Henmi played a central role in coordinating orders with a 57-year-old former senior official of the Tokyo Games organizing committee already found guilty over the bid-rigging case.
According to the indictment, Henmi conspired with the former organizing committee official and others to decide in advance the winners of contracts for planning Tokyo Games test events and managing venues for actual competition events between February and July 2018. They also conspired to have only the preselected companies take part in the bidding.
The defense argued that Henmi was not guilty because there was no agreement among the companies on the operations to manage Games competition events, which were outsourced under discretionary contracts.
Dentsu Group and five other companies as well as seven individuals, including Henmi and the former organizing committee official, have been indicted in relation to the case.
Of them, officials at ad agency Hakuhodo and event company Cerespo were found guilty last year. Their lawyers have appealed against the rulings.
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