Japanese police have arrested a member of the Tokyo Olympic Council on suspicion of taking bribes along with three other men in connection with the scandal, prosecutors said.

Haruyuki Takahashi is accused of accepting US$380,000 in bribes from clothing chain OK Holdings, one of the companies sponsoring the 2020 Olympic Games, which were held in the summer of 2021 after they were postponed for a year due to the corona virus pandemic.

The 78-year-old man was arrested along with the 83-year-old head of Aoki Holdings, Hironori Aoki, and two other executives from a clothing company, according to Tokyo prosecutors’ documents seen by AFP.

Prosecutors accuse Takahashi of taking bribes “meaning money in gratitude for the favorable and privileged treatment” he gave Aoki.

A total of 51 million yen (US$380,000 at current exchange rates) was transferred to the bank account of the company he manages in more than 50 transfers between October 2017 and March 2022, according to prosecutors.

The arrests came after Japanese police ransacked Takahashi’s home in Tokyo last month, shutting down local media, as well as searching Oki’s home and the former offices of the recently dissolved Olympic Organizing Committee.

Takahashi, the former CEO of Japanese advertising giant Dentsu, is suspected to have received the equivalent of more than €320,000 from Oki Holdings in 2017 following the signing of a contract between his consulting firm and the group, which in 2018 became an official partner of the Tokyo Olympics.

Takahashi has not been expected to accept any money or gifts due to his role as a member of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Board of Directors since 2014. Despite these allegations, Takahashi denied there was a conflict of interest in the deal with Oki Holdings.

Suspicions of corruption began to surface over the terms of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. In March 2019, JOC President Tsunekazu Takeda resigned months after he was found guilty in French justice of making payments to Singapore-based Black Tidings before and after the selection of the archipelago to host the Games of the International Olympic Committee.

French investigators say Black News is an “empty shell” that leads to Papa Massata Diack, son of former Senegalese International Athletics Federation president Lamine Diack, who was involved in corruption cases and died in December 2021 at the age of 88.