Katsutoshi Matsuo, the fired Foreign Ministry logistics chief charged with swindling discretionary funds from the government, will have his first Tokyo District Court hearing on July 31, court officials said.
Matsuo, 55, was charged March 30 with defrauding the government out of 42 million yen. He was then indicted April 25 for allegedly swindling the government out of 119 million yen and again on May 29 for swindling a further 106 million yen, bringing the total to 267 million yen, according to the indictments.
According to the first indictment, Matsuo swindled 42 million yen by padding expenses such as hotel bills for three trips abroad involving two former prime ministers, Ryutaro Hashimoto and the late Keizo Obuchi. He allegedly ran this scam from 1997 through 1999 by submitting false receipts to the secretariat to receive reimbursement for money never spent.