Prosecutors served new arrest warrants Tuesday on a former and two current Defense Facilities Administration Agency officials who allegedly rigged bids for construction projects at U.S. bases in Yamaguchi and Nagasaki prefectures in fiscal 2003, sources said.
The three are Takayoshi Kawano, 57, who previously held the third-highest post at the agency as technical councilor, his predecessor, Mamoru Ikezawa, 57, and Takashige Matsuda, 53, currently an official in the agency's general affairs department.
The warrants came a day after they were indicted for playing leading roles in rigging bids for tenders on agency air-conditioning projects.
The three reportedly owned up to the charges connected to the air-conditioning projects and also to those pertaining to bids rigged for the runway construction project at the U.S. Marine Corps Iwakuni Air Station in Yamaguchi Prefecture and construction work at the U.S. naval base in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, investigative sources said.