A Tokyo-based plastic products manufacturer, its former president and two others were charged Monday with allegedly paying bribes to Vietnamese government officials totaling about 23.6 million yen ($185,000) to avoid large sums of additional taxes and fines.

In addition to charging Tenma Corp., Tokyo prosecutors indicted Kaneto Fujino, the company's 69-year-old former president, Tsutomu Hosogoe, 57, the then executive officer and general manager of the corporate planning department, and Haruhiko Yoshida, 51, the president of the company's Vietnamese subsidiary at the time.

Tenma had self-reported the bribes to Tokyo prosecutors. Investigators in Japan then used diplomatic channels to request assistance from Vietnamese authorities to look into the allegations. All three have admitted to the charges, according to sources close to the matter.

According to the indictment, in June 2017, the three men gave the equivalent of 9.8 million yen in cash to a lead investigator after they were told by local customs authorities that Tenma Vietnam Co. would need to pay additional taxes and a fine.

In August 2019, Hosogoe and Yoshida gave another 13.8 million yen in cash to a lead investigator in a similar provision.

A report compiled by a Tenma-commissioned third-party panel said that in 2017 Vietnamese authorities had told the company's subsidiary that it owed 1.79 billion yen in additional taxes and a fine in relation to the import of metal molds, but they dropped the matter after the cash payment.

In 2019, the subsidiary subsequently had the amount of the tax and fine it had to pay reduced substantially. Fujino resigned as president two months after the report was released in April 2020.

Tenma said Monday it would "work to prevent a recurrence and make company-wide efforts to restore confidence in the company."

Founded in 1949 as Taiyo Shoji, Tenma manufactures the Fits series of plastic storage containers and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Prime Market.

==Kyodo

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