SAPPORO (Kyodo) Prosecutors Tuesday charged Japanese seismologist Hideki Shimamura with swindling Hokkaido University out of 20.2 million yen in school property -- five seismographs and peripheral equipment -- that he allegedly sold to Norway's University of Bergen in the late 1990s.
Shimamura, 64, a former professor at Hokkaido University and an expert on undersea earthquakes, has denied the allegations, the prosecutors said.
In the indictment filed with the Sapporo District Court, the prosecutors said Shimamura told the University of Bergen in September 1998 and in May 1999 that state-run Hokkaido University would sell it five seismographs and peripheral equipment and sent the devices to Norway.
Shimamura at that time headed Hokkaido University's Institute of Seismology and Volcanology.
The Norwegian university transferred the money into Shimamura's bank account, and kept the items.