KOBE -- Five former executives of Snow Brand Foods Co. were arrested Friday on suspicion of defrauding an industry body out of 196 million yen by mislabeling beef.
Among those named were Shigeru Hatakeyama, 55, former head of the company's meat sales and procurement division, and Tetsuaki Sugawara, 47, who headed the company's Kansai Meat Center in Hyogo Prefecture.
The others were Masao Hirose, 54, former head of the firm's processed meat section; Shizuo Sugiyama, 51, a former chief of the meat procurement division at the firm's headquarters; and Yusuke Tazaki, 56, former head of the Kanto Meat Center.