Police are set to serve a fresh arrest warrant on Katsutoshi Matsuo, a former Foreign Ministry logistics chief, later this week on suspicion of a new case of fraud again involving padding hotel bills for overseas trips by prime ministers, police sources said Sunday.
Matsuo, 55, was arrested March 10 for allegedly swindling some 42 million yen by padding expenses such as hotel bills for three trips involving two prime ministers -- Ryutaro Hashimoto and Keizo Obuchi -- from the Cabinet Secretariat's discretionary funds for diplomatic activities from 1997 through 1999.
The Metropolitan Police Department is gathering evidence to arrest him again for swindling funds in a similar fashion for most of the other official trips he handled for prime ministers, the sources said.