Takashi Uehara, a former vice president of the failed Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan, was found hanged Thursday in a hotel room in Tokyo's Suginami Ward, police said.

The discovery of a suicide note addressed to Uehara's family has police treating the case as a suicide -- the most recent in a string of such deaths by officials who have been caught up in money scandals and investigations.

Police said Uehara hanged himself at around 1 a.m. Thursday with a bathrobe belt he tied to an air-conditioning duct. A hotel worker found him at around 10 a.m.

Uehara, 59, had reportedly been questioned recently by prosecutors on suspicion he falsified the bank's books. He had been in charge of LTCB's account settlements.

Prosecutors reportedly suspected Uehara was involved in an alleged payment of some 7.1 billion yen in illegal dividends from the LTCB to its shareholders, as well as falsification of the bank's financial statements in the business year ended March 31, 1998.

LTCB was placed under temporary state control last fall.