Former Account Manager of Abe Faction Found Guilty

The Tokyo District Court sentenced former accounting manager of Abe faction of ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Jun-ichiro Matsumoto, 3 years in prison with suspension of 5 years. Being involved in the slush fund scandal of the faction which caused indictment of lawmakers and accounting managers, Matsumoto was found guilty with violation of Political Funds Control Act. The court concluded that the scandal caused public distrust on political funds.

The court found that Abe faction had concealed a part of political fund which were made from sales of fundraising party ticket hosted by the faction. The lawmakers in Abe faction sold the ticket and the sales were submitted to the faction. But if a lawmakers sold the ticket beyond the quota for each lawmaker, he or she would receive return for the surplus from the faction, or would keep it without submitting it to the faction. The faction and the lawmakers did not record the surplus.

 

Matsumoto took his seat as the accounting manager of Abe faction in 2019, succeeding the method of concealing the surplus of ticket sales from his predecessor. The court found that Abe faction did not report 1.35 billion yen of the surplus between 2018 and 2022.

The sentence accused Matsumoto of his failure of reporting approximately forty percent of the faction’s total balance, because he simply followed traditional practice of not reporting the fund, recognizing the practice had successfully been hidden. In spite of some opportunities to terminate the practice among the faction leaders including Matsumoto,

the faction decided to continue not reporting the fund.

 

One month after former prime minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated in July, 2022, the leaders of Abe faction had a meeting and discussed the reporting of the surplus, but they did not decide to terminate the practice. While Matsumoto revealed that the practice was decided to continue in the meeting, some faction leaders denied the fact. Strange enough, the lawyer of defendant, public prosecutors and even the court did not clarify whether the faction leaders were involved in the decision.

 

Matsumoto became the second defendant who received sentence on the slush fund scandal. The first defendant, the accounting manager of Nikai Faction Hitoshi Nagai, received a sentence of two years in prison with suspension of five years in September. The penalty for Matsumoto and Nagai included suspension, supposedly because they had to follow the decision of lawmakers considering their position.

 

Shigeru Ishiba administration is facing criticisms that the LDP could not reveal the details on who instructed Matsumoto or Nagai not to record the fund or how that kickback system had been established. Although even former Ishiba faction is doubted as having failed in reporting some funds, the news reports are focused on power struggle in the LDP, as politics heads to the snap election of the House of Representatives. But polls show high interest on the slush fund scandal, which may affect the result of the general election of the House.