The Tokyo District Court sentenced a former Finance Ministry bank inspector to a suspended 28-month prison term Friday for accepting 4.47 million yen in bribes from five major banks.
Toshimi Taniuchi, 49, formerly of the ministry's financial inspectors office, was also fined 4.47 million yen -- the amount of the bribes. His sentencing follows the suspended sentence handed down Thursday to former ministry bank inspector Koichi Miyagawa, who was tried on the same charge.
The court said Taniuchi accepted the bribes in the form of wining and dining on 91 occasions between September 1993 and September 1997 from Sanwa Bank, Tokyo-Mitsubishi Bank, Sumitomo Bank, the now-defunct Hokkaido Takushoku Bank and Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank.