KUMAMOTO (TR) – Police have served a fresh arrest warrant on an incumbent councilman from Yatsushiro City for allegedly taking elaborate steps to conceal millions of yen he received in a massive bribery scheme, reports TV Asahi (June 3).
Yukio Narimatsu, 54, was previously arrested for allegedly accepting a 60-million-yen kickback related to the construction of a new city hall building. Now, investigators say Narimatsu attempted to launder a portion of the illicit cash as local authorities began investigating him.
According to police, Narimatsu and 84-year-old former city councilman Teruyuki Matsuura boarded a Shinkansen bullet train in April, carrying over 20 million yen in cash.
The pair traveled approximately 900 kilometers from Yatsushiro to Shin-Yokohama Station, where they rendezvoused with two accomplices: Tokyo company executive Hiroto Watanabe, 49, and Takuya Ito, 51.
Upon handing off the cash, the group allegedly set out to hide the funds in a bank account registered to Watanabe’s company. To avoid triggering security alerts, the suspects visited three separate convenience stores and fed the money into ATMs in increments of 500,000 yen, conducting roughly 40 separate transactions.
At the time of the money laundering plot, the Yatsushiro City Council was actively looking into rumors of Narimatsu’s corruption.
Narimatsu previously put up a defiant front against the allegations. He said, “They say I built my house with money received from bid-rigging. I absolutely deny it. I built my house using a 35-year mortgage.”
Ironically, Narimatsu had also previously commented on the dangers of holding onto illicit funds, telling reporters, “If the police have doubts, I think they will flip through my bankbook, and that’s how you get caught.”
Police believe this mounting fear of a financial probe is exactly what prompted the suspects to smuggle the cash across the country.
