An investigation is underway in a question of questionable payments in Haruyuki Takahashi, ex-member of the organizing committee of the Tokyo Olympic Games, on the part of the Aoki clothing group, which was one of the sponsors of the event.
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Its organizing committee was dissolved at the end of June, but the Tokyo Olympic Games (Olympics) come back in the news through new suspicions of corruption, which brought the daily Mainichi to publish, Friday, July 29, a editorial calling for “siding” on a scandal “harming the values of Olympism”.
On the same day, the Tokyo prosecutor’s office continued its searches at the headquarters of the Aoki Holdings clothing giant, after an intervention at the home of the business owner, Hironori Aoki, at the headquarters of the Olympic Games Committee and In the premises of the Dentsu advertising agency.
The investigation also targets Haruyuki Takahashi, ex-Cadre manager of Dentsu and ex-member of the Executive Committee of the Organization Committee of the Olympics, of which the consulting company would have affected from 2017 to 2021, 45 million yen of OK. The payments would be linked to the will of the company to send the procedures to become sponsor of the games and obtain from the marketing division of the organizing committee the right to sell products stamped from the Olympic logos.
The procedure would have been deemed too slow by Hironori Aoki, who would then have asked Mr. Takahashi, whom he has known for a long time. Aoki became sponsor of the Olympic Games in 2018 and was able to sell 30,000 adorned costumes of the Olympic logos, while obtaining the uniform market for referees and judges of the summer 2021 competitions. Mr. Takahashi denied any embezzlement, explaining that amounts paid were intended for “advice fees unrelated to the Olympic Games”.
“godfather” of the sports sector in Japan
The 78 -year -old businessman finds himself involved in a new dubious affair, which does not seem to disrupt the one who was qualified as “godfather” of the sports sector in Japan in 2016 by the monthly Sentaku.
entered Dentsu after graduating from the prestigious Keio University, he supervised the creation, in 1982, of ISL, a agency founded by the Japanese company with the German equipment supplier Adidas. ISL then holds the monopoly on the broadcast of the Football World Cup. In addition to his involvement in football, Mr. Takahashi would have established solid contacts with the International Olympic Committee from 1984. It is thanks to him that Dentsu was able to represent the International Athletics Federation, IAAF.
Man has been able to create a powerful international network, approaching personalities like Sepp Blatter, the former FIFA leader. He used to receive his hosts at Sorasio, a luxury restaurant he owned, set up on the 46th floor of the Tour signed Jean Nouvel that had until 2021 Dentsu, in Tokyo.
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