The office of indicted lawmaker Muneo Suzuki illegally paid the restaurant bills of a former Foreign Ministry bureaucrat -- who is also under arrest -- by disguising them as political activity expenses at Suzuki's political fund management organization, sources said Wednesday.

The concealed payments, through which Russia expert Masaru Sato allegedly received more than 10 million yen a year, violated the Political Funds Control Law, the sources said.

Prosecutors have also found that 36 million yen was diverted from Suzuki's fund management body -- 21 Seiki Seisaku Kenkyukai -- to help him pay for a house in Tokyo's upmarket Minami-Aoyama district.

Prosecutors are apparently digging up new information to bolster their case that the diversion of political donations was a common practice at Suzuki's office.

The sources allege that Suzuki's aides gave Sato about 1 million yen a month in exchange for the restaurant receipts he turned in after dining with Russian diplomats. The payments began in July 1998 and lasted until February, they said.

Sato, 42, reportedly maintained close ties with Suzuki, 54, a former member of the Liberal Democratic Party who has been charged with bribery in a separate case. As the Foreign Ministry's chief analyst, Sato allegedly gave Suzuki highly sensitive intelligence on a frequent basis, including reports from foreign intelligence services.

The aides to Suzuki allegedly involved in paying the funds to Sato include Jun Tada, a 50-year-old policy aide who was served a fresh arrest warrant Tuesday on suspicion of failing to declare 100 million yen in donations from the LDP-affiliated political organization Structural Reform Institute to 21 Seiki Seisaku Kenkyukai in a 1998 political fund report.

Also arrested Tuesday on the same charge were Akira Miyano, Suzuki's 54-year-old secretary in charge of financial affairs, and Reiko Sato, 66, who mostly handled financial matters at Suzuki's office and is no relation to the diplomat Sato.

They are alleged to have entered false accounting records for 21 Seiki Seisaku Kenkyukai by omitting the 36 million yen used to help pay for Sato's house from its books.