The Japanese flag and Olympic rings are seen on the Japan Olympic Museum close to the National Stadium in Tokyo on Feb. 17, 2023.

YUICHI YAMAZAKI/AFP by way of Getty Images

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YUICHI YAMAZAKI/AFP by way of Getty Images

The Japanese flag and Olympic rings are seen on the Japan Olympic Museum close to the National Stadium in Tokyo on Feb. 17, 2023.

YUICHI YAMAZAKI/AFP by way of Getty Images

SEOUL, South Korea — Japan’s largest promoting company Dentsu and 5 different companies have been indicted for bid-rigging within the run-up to the 2021 summer time Olympics. The deepening scandal means that preparations for a few of the world’s highest-level sporting competitions had been something however aggressive.

Prosecutors issued the indictments after receiving complaints from Japan’s Fair Trade Commission. The complaints say that Dentsu, its primary rival Hakuhodo, and 4 different companies and 7 people rigged bids for Olympic check occasions.

The occasions had been costume rehearsals held between 2018 and 2021 to check Olympic venues, and familiarize athletes and workers with them. The video games will largely be remembered for being delayed by a 12 months, and being held regardless of widespread public opposition to going forward with the video games in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dentsu Group President and CEO Hiroshi Igarashi admitted to prosecutors his agency’s involvement within the bid rigging, Japanese media report. About half of the 26 check occasions had just one agency bidding for every, leading to greater than $300 million price of contracts being awarded with none competitors, a attainable violation of Japan’s antitrust regulation.

Dentsu was accountable for arranging company sponsors for the video games, a task it has been involved in for the reason that 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Prosecutors arrested a former Dentsu government final 12 months in a separate Olympic corruption probe. Haruyuki Takahashi, a former Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee member, was detained together with the heads of a number of companies suspected of bribing him in trade for Olympic sponsorship offers.

French prosecutors have additionally investigated Takahashi, on suspicion that he bribed a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), in a bid to secure Tokyo’s proper to host the video games.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike says that if the check occasion bid-rigging allegations are confirmed, she is going to search damages from Dentsu and different organizers, for driving up the prices of internet hosting the video games for host metropolis Tokyo, and for taxpayers.

One attainable casualty of the corruption scandals is the northern Japanese metropolis of Sapporo. Sapporo is the front-runner amongst attainable hosts of the 2030 Winter Games. But it suspended promotion of its bid in December, amid public outrage on the corruption scandals. The IOC has postponed deciding on a number for the 2030 video games, amid considerations about local weather change.