Kanju Sato, a former home affairs minister who was arrested over the weekend on fraud charges, lent 20 million yen to the Aichi prefectural chapter of the Democratic Party of Japan in October to be used for the Nov. 9 general election of the House of Representatives, sources said Monday.

The loan was apparently made possible because Sato's personal assets had grown due to his alleged pocketing of roughly 17 million yen in government-paid salary for a woman falsely registered as his secretary, the sources said. Sato was arrested Sunday.

Sato, 62, who was then head of the DPJ Aichi chapter, had 10 million yen paid into the chapter's account on Oct. 2 and 10 in his name.