January 25 2010 14:45TOKYO, Jan. 25 KYODO
A yearlong investigation of Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa, 67, over an alleged false political fund report related to a Tokyo land purchase in 2004 by his fund management body has entered the final phase, with prosecutors questioning him last Saturday.
The initial probe began due to large-scale donations by Nishimatsu Construction Co. to ruling and opposition party lawmakers, and the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office searched the fund management body, Rikuzankai, in March last year for allegedly concealing illegal donations using ''dummy organizations.''
And the office arrested his government-financed secretary Takanori Okubo, 48, on suspicion of violating the Political Funds Control Law by writing a false report.
A high-ranking prosecutor at that time said, ''The political fund report by Rikuzankai is a fake. They think it's all right if the sum of money is correct,'' and described materials confiscated from the body and other related groups as a ''gold mine.''
Ozawa has been stressing the transparency of political funds and a revision of the Political Funds Control Law, and at a news conference in February 2007 when Rikuzankai's ownership of about 10 real estate properties was viewed with suspicion, he made public 660 pieces of related documents.
''It is important to open (information). If there is illegality, that will be brought to justice, and the people determine the appropriateness,'' he said then.
Included in these real estate properties is a tract of land in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward which was the target of questioning this time. According to investigative sources, materials contradicting what he said at the 2007 news conference were found in computer data and other things confiscated by prosecutors.
As proof to show that Ozawa did not own rights to the land, he displayed a ''note of confirmation'' said to have been exchanged with Rikuzankai in January 2005, but this time, evidence was found that the note was made immediately before the 2007 news conference, the sources said.
At the news conference, Ozawa said ''political donations'' were the sources to purchase the land priced at about 352 million yen, but in October last year, his office explained, ''The sources were 400 million yen in loans with time deposits collateralized.''
Thus, the Ozawa side's statements have begun shifting. The prosecutors have also obtained a confession from a former executive of Mizutani Construction Co. which tried to join work to build the Isawa dam in Iwate Prefecture, Ozawa's constituency, who said, ''We offered 50 million yen to Mr. Ozawa's side.''
The money was said to be offered in October 2004, close to the land purchase, and the prosecutors suspected that the sources for the purchase were donations from the general contractor, and the loans were to conceal this. If there were illegal donations, the political fund report could be falsely written.
Armed with the breakthrough in the investigation, the prosecutors arrested Tomohiro Ishikawa, 36, a former privately hired secretary to him and now a member of the House of Representatives, on Jan. 15.
At the questioning on a voluntary basis on Saturday, Ozawa flatly denied his involvement in falsification, saying, ''There are no illegal donations,'' and, ''The remaining amount of money from the sale of my house and money in the names of my family members were used.''
The prosecutors will further check potential contradictions in Ozawa's statement by confronting it with statements by Ishikawa and others, the sources said.
The prosecutors believe that Ozawa put off their questioning because he could not explain himself rationally, but they have so far failed to get decisive material evidence showing Mizutani Construction offered donations, and the biggest point is how Ishikawa and Okubo will talk about Ozawa's alleged involvement, the sources said.
A source close to Ozawa said, ''The prosecutors want to build a prosecutable case at any cost,'' but said, ''We can fully show proof that Mr. Ozawa's money in hand was used for the land purchase.''
==Kyodo
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