A 76-year-old former village treasurer who was serving a 12-year prison term for embezzling some 1.3 billion yen from village coffers died early Thursday, sources close to the case said.
Tadao Iwasaki, former treasurer of Tosayama, Kochi Prefecture, died of an unspecified illness at a medical prison in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, where he had been transferred from Kochi Prison after his health deteriorated in the spring, according to the sources.
Iwasaki was sentenced in December for defrauding financial institutions of some 1.35 billion yen by making it appear the village wanted to borrow funds. The financial firms are currently suing the village to get the money back.