Several officials of Japanese ad giant
The officials admitted to the wrongdoing during voluntary questioning with prosecutors, while maintaining they were not aware of any illegality at first when the bid rigging took place, according to the source.
A former operations executive of the event's organizers is suspected of playing a lead role in the rigging, along with several Dentsu staff, some of whom were seconded to work for the games.
In 2017, Dentsu, at the request of the games organizers, created a list of advertising agencies and other firms to categorize them into groups by their respective track records in each sport, according to the source. It is suspected that the list was used in arranging successful bidders.
Prosecutors believe the bid rigging constituted a violation of the antimonopoly law, and the
It is suspected that the rigging took place in connection with the 26 open bids held in 2018 for the rights to plan 56 test events. These were awarded to nine companies, including Dentsu and fellow ad giant
The test events -- held so organizers can check for potential problems with operations, security and guiding audiences -- were carried out between 2018 and 2021 before the
Since November, prosecutors and the
In addition to the bid-rigging case, prosecutors are investigating a widening corruption scandal centered on former
==Kyodo
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