Arrested former lawmaker Kiyomi Tsujimoto used some 40 million yen of her office's illegally pooled funds to loan to her friends, sources alleged Tuesday.
They said the 43-year-old former policy chief of the Social Democratic Party borrowed the money on about 30 occasions over a period of 5 1/2 years until she resigned from the House of Representatives in March 2002, lending the money to her personal acquaintances.
Tsujimoto repaid all the money to the bank account managed by her office, they said.