Trial of Accounting Manager of Abe Faction
Former accounting manager of Abe faction, Jun-ichiro Matsumoto, pleaded guilty with the slush fund scandal, in which factions in Liberal Democratic Party disseminated secret money to their lawmakers, in the trial at Tokyo District Court on April 10 th . Matsumoto also argued that he did not know about the money which some lawmakers had not passed over to the faction. It is still unclear who is responsible for the money which was kept by some lawmakers. Matsumoto’s appearance to the court marked the first trial for ten people, three lawmakers and seven accounting managers, indicted in the slush fund scandal which has been shaking Fumio Kishida administration and LDP. In the trial, the prosecutors explained the overall structure of the scandal. The factions had fundraising parties in which the member lawmakers had quota for selling its tickets. Abe faction received the sales of ticket from the lawmakers, but the faction returned the sales beyond the quota to the lawmakers as kickback.