Prosecutors arrested the former chairman of Mizutani Kensetsu Co. on Wednesday on suspicion of playing a key role in the engineering firm's alleged evasion of 230 million yen in taxes.
Isao Mizutani, 61, was arrested in the afternoon at Haneda airport in Tokyo upon his return from overseas.
Mizutani, conspiring with Shigeyuki Nakamura, a representing director of the company, and Obi Kensetsu K.K. President Fumio Obi, are believed to have evaded corporate taxes by hiding 760 million yen in Mizutani Kensetsu income by booking a bogus loss related to a land deal in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture.
Nakamura, 55, and Obi, 58, have already been arrested over the alleged tax evasion.
Tokyo prosecutors had been secretly investigating Mizutani Kensetsu for years over tips about its involvement in political machinations with backdoor money, according to a senior prosecutor.
Prosecutors have also searched Rainbow Bridge, a Tokyo-based nongovernmental organization that has business dealings in North Korea, and Maeda Corp., a Mizutani Kensetsu subcontractor.