NHK: Japanese Dentsu president admits responsibility for bid-rigging ahead of 2020 Olympics

Hiroshi Igarashi, president of Japanese advertising company Dentsu Group, has acknowledged corporate liability for major contract fraud related to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (OI). It is reported by the Japanese NHK with a link to the source.

The 40 billion yen project is being scammed, according to NHK, including bidding to plan work for test events for each sport, as well as work for main competitions at the Olympics. Dentsu is suspected of being involved in collusion, including creating a list of companies that have received orders for each competition along with the organizing committee, tentatively from July 2017, a year before the auction.

Suspicion of violating antitrust law is being filed against six companies, including Dentsu and Hakuhodo, as part of the investigation, a former Olympic official has been detained, as well as the management of Dentsu Inc, Cerespo Co and Fuji Creative Corp. Mr. Igarashi was interviewed by the Special Investigation Department and admitted the corporation’s liability for participating in bid rigging.

The Tokyo Olympics were postponed in 2020 for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, by the time they began in 2021, sponsors had invested $ 3.3 billion in the event, recalls Bloomberg.

Maria Fedotova