NARITA, Chiba Pref.,

A Russian diplomat suspected of illegally obtaining trade secrets of Softbank Corp. from the company's employee left Japan on a flight from Narita International Airport near Tokyo on Monday without complying with a police request to appear for questioning.

The Public Security Bureau of Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department plans to refer Anton Kalinin, deputy Russian trade representative in Japan, to prosecutors on a charge of violating the unfair competition prevention law.

According to investigative sources, on Feb. 18 last year Kalinin, believed to be belonging to a spy agency derived from the KGB, abetted Yutaka Araki, then a senior official at Softbank's mobile information technology promotion headquarters, in acquiring corporate secrets including the locations of base stations from a server computer.

Araki, 48, told interrogators that he received several tens of thousands of yen for the data and took out other confidential documents in March, while the bureau believes that the money he obtained total hundreds of thousands of yen.

Initially, Kalinin asked him to provide information already available to the public in return for cash. Later, he demanded confidential information and, despite suspicion that the diplomat was a spy, Araki gave it because he wanted money, according to the sources.

The former Softbank official also told that he met Kalinin some 20 times and that the Russian agent had never disclosed his title or contact details, the sources added.

JIJI Press