Ex-event firm chief guilty over Tokyo Games bid-rigging

The Tokyo District Court sentenced a former president of event management company Same Two to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, on Wednesday for bid-rigging related to the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2021.

The Tokyo-based company was fined ¥150 million. All six companies charged over Tokyo Games bid-rigging were found guilty at the district court.

According to the day’s ruling, the former Same Two president, Masao Umino, predetermined around February-July 2018 companies winning orders for the planning and operations of the Olympics and the Paralympics as well as test events preceding the Tokyo Games, in collusion with a 59-year-old former deputy head of the organizing committee of the international sporting events and others.

Presiding Judge Shoji Miyata at the Tokyo court pointed out that Umino was asked by major Japanese advertising agency Dentsu Group to submit bids for orders related to swimming and other events in the Games.

The judge said the defendant recognized that his firm would have a better chance of winning the orders by acting in line with the intentions of Dentsu Group and the organizing committee.

The defendant “made an easy choice for the benefit of his company,” the judge said, rejecting the defense’s claim that Umino was not involved in the bid-rigging and is therefore innocent.

Among the five companies other than Same Two, a fine of ¥300 million on Dentsu Group has become final at the Supreme Court, while the other four have filed appeals with a high court or the top court.