The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office indicted on July 15 the president of Azabu Building Co. and an executive in charge of financial matters on suspicion of concealing some 1.3 billion yen in a secret account to prevent creditors from claiming its assets, office sources said.
Under indictment are President Yoshitaro Watanabe, 63, and Shoichi Owaki, 60, a board member of Azabu Building. The company borrowed heavily from Mitsui Trust & Banking Corp. and housing finance companies.
Katsumi Naganuma, 61, a director of the company, was also arrested with the indicted executives, but was later freed with no action taken against him. According to the prosecution's investigation so far, Azabu Building ran into financial difficulties and was unable to repay loans, prompting a freeze on some of its assets in bank accounts at the request of Mitsui Trust & Banking in September 1993, the sources said.
To prevent further seizures of its assets, Watanabe and his accomplice allegedly transferred about 1.31 billion yen from its corporate attorney's account to a secret account held in Owaki's name on 30 occasions from September 1994 through December 1995, they said. The assets held in the corporate attorney's account were rental revenues from office building space held by the company, they said.