The prosecutor's office has sought a two-year prison sentence against the former deputy director of the Games Organizing Committee, who is accused of violating the Antimonopoly Act in a bid-rigging case involving projects totaling more than 430 billion yen, including the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic test tournaments, for "proactively coordinating orders."
Yasuo Mori, 56, a former deputy general of the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, is accused of violating the Antimonopoly Act for illegally coordinating orders for projects totaling 6.437 billion yen, including bidding for the planning of test competitions for each sport and the management of the tournament, which were ordered by the Organising Committee along with six major advertising companies.
At the trial held at the Tokyo District Court on March 21, the prosecution stated, "We proactively adjusted orders to become a single bidder for a national project with high public interest, and the payment to the companies that participated in the bid rigging amounted to a large amount, of which a considerable amount was covered by public funds. Considering the scale of the deal and the disappointment it has caused both domestically and internationally, this is a serious and vicious case."
On the other hand, the defense argued that "it was an unfortunate case in which the preparation for the event was delayed, and if I did not make adjustments, some competitions would fail to bid and the holding of the tournament could be hindered.
He is expected to be sentenced on 1 December.