Japanese prosecutors on Friday searched offices of ad giant
The searches, joined by
The
The high-ranking official belonged to a test event management division of the committee's games organizing bureau, which designed the specifics of events suspected to have involved bid rigging, according to the sources.
The prior arrangements are said to have included committee members asking companies whether they are interested in taking part in the bids, according to the sources.
Rigging is suspected in the 26 open bids held in 2018 for the rights to plan 56 test events. These were awarded to nine companies, including Dentsu and
The amount of the contracts totaled more than
The nine companies and one consortium eventually won contracts without a tender process to run the test events and competition venues during the
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
As for the latest allegations, the organizing committee, with assistance from Dentsu, had created a list of advertising agencies and event firms to categorize them into groups according to their respective experiences in each sport. The list is suspected to have been used in arranging successful bidders.
Dentsu won bids for planning five events for about
Dentsu acknowledged being searched and said, "We apologize for causing trouble. We will fully cooperate with (the investigation)."
On Thursday, the metropolitan government separately launched a probe into the suspected bid rigging and plans to compile an interim report within this year at the earliest after holding hearings of officials involved in the test events.
The searches by the prosecutors and the
By reporting the alleged violation of the antitrust law and offering to cooperate with the watchdog, ADK is hoping for leniency in the form of a reduction in fines.
Following the report, the prosecutors recently launched an investigation into the bid-rigging case, in addition to the corruption scandal centered on the former
Takahashi is charged with receiving around
==Kyodo
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