Tokyo: The arrested former president of major Japanese advertising agency ADK Holdings Inc. has denied the allegation that he bribed a former Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee executive, informed sources said Friday.

The former ADK chief, Shinichi Ueno, 68, who was arrested this week, has told the special squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office that the money paid to the former organizing committee executive, Haruyuki Takahashi, 78, was “proper consultant fees,” according to the sources.

Ueno is said to be claiming that the money was too much to be regarded as bribes.

Ueno is suspected of conspiring with two ADK officials to give bribes to Takahashi, in the hope that the company would be named a cooperative agency of Dentsu Inc., which was the Tokyo Games’ exclusive agency.

In March 2013, Ueno became the president of Asatsu-DK Inc., the predecessor of ADK. Several months later, his company concluded a contract with a company whose chairman was Takahashi.

It has since been paying 500,000 yen per month in the name of consultant fees to Takahashi’s firm. The payments until January 2022 totaled some 50 million yen.

Ueno has told the special investigation squad that he had not heard that the payments were illegal, according to the sources.

Meanwhile, Asatsu-DK received some 40 million yen in subcontractor fees from Dentsu in 2018 over a Tokyo Games sponsorship contract for parking lot operator Park24 Co.

In December the same year, Asatsu-DK transferred about 20 million yen to a bank account specified by Takahashi.

Ueno has claimed that he had not known the money transfer until he came under investigation, the sources said.

JIJI Press