DPJ lawmaker questioned over land purchase by Ozawa's fund body

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TOKYO, Dec. 27 Kyodo -
Prosecutors questioned a Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Sunday over a
controversial land purchase by the fund management body of DPJ Secretary
General Ichiro Ozawa, investigative sources said.
The 36-year-old House of Representatives member, Tomohiro Ishikawa, was engaged
in clerical work at the Rikuzankai fund management body when the land in Tokyo
was purchased in 2004.
The fund management body is suspected of using more than 400 million yen that
was not appropriately recorded in its political funds report to purchase the
land in violation of the political funds control law.
In November, a criminal complaint was filed with the Tokyo District Public
Prosecutors Office against Ishikawa and two others, saying the land deal was
listed in a political funds report for 2005 -- not 2004.
The fund management body claimed to have bought the 476-square-meter area in
Tokyo's Setagaya Ward for 340 million yen using part of the 400 million yen it
had borrowed from a financial institution, but sources close to the matter said
payments for the purchase were made shortly before the group got the loan.
After serving as a private secretary to Ozawa, Ishikawa became a lower house
member from Hokkaido in 2007.
==Kyodo
2009-12-27 22:33:13