The president of Honma Golf Co. is expected to step down by the end of this month over a series of scandals involving his company, police sources said Wednesday.

It is believed that Yukihiro Honma will resign following a recent police search of the major golf equipment manufacturer and retailer over alleged smuggling of golf clubs from Japan to South Korea by a senior company official.

Honma, 67, has developed the Tokyo-based company into a comprehensive golf equipment maker since its listing on the over-the-counter market in 1995. He currently lives in Singapore.

South Korean buyers are suspected of exporting to South Korea about 60,000 golf clubs they purchased from Honma Golf and other retailers. They falsely declared the clubs as lead waste when exporting them to the South aboard a freighter.

Jun Tabuchi, a former Honma Golf store manager, allegedly helped them during the smuggling by riding on a truck loaded with golf clubs, the sources said.

Tabuchi, 40, and two South Koreans were arrested by Japanese law-enforcement officials Feb. 1 and later charged with violating the Customs Law or abetting its violation.

The Metropolitan Police Department also found that Honma Golf failed to pay consumption tax on their products by manipulating checks since 1997, the sources said.

The company pretended they were selling the clubs to foreign buyers, which allowed them to avoid paying duty.

The Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau also forced Honma Golf to pay some 120 million yen in unpaid consumption tax after the company declared a revised tax return in December, sources close to the case said.

In late February, the Fair Trade Commission ordered the company to remove advertisements from its Web site, saying prices shown in the advertisements were misrepresented.

On Tuesday, South Korean customs authorities arrested a 49-year-old Pusan man who allegedly worked for Tabuchi on suspicion of smuggling golf clubs from Japan into the country, the MPD said.

The suspect is a senior member of a South Korean smuggling ring, police said. He is suspected of being involved in smuggling golf clubs with a group of Japanese and South Koreans.