A former chief treasurer of Wakayama Prefecture was sentenced Wednesday to a suspended two-year prison term for rigging bids for public work projects in 2004, a case that led to the arrest of then Wakayama Gov. Yoshiki Kimura.
Satoaki Mizutani, 61, was the first of seven people indicted in the case to be sentenced. The others include 55-year-old Kimura, who stepped down last December following his arrest, and former golf course operator Yoshikazu Iyama, 56.
In handing down the ruling at the Osaka District Court, the presiding judge, Masaki Nishida, criticized the case as "a malicious collusive bidding at the initiative of government officials . . . based on cozy ties between the prefecture and the industry."