Former Lockheed executive A. Carl Kotchian died Dec. 14, a person at the housing facility for elderly people where he lived in Palo Alto, Calif., said Saturday. He was 94.
He is known in Japan for testifying before the U.S. Congress in February 1976 that his company gave money to foreign officials to aid sales of Lockheed airplanes. His comments led to the indictments of more than a dozen people in Japan, including former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, who was charged with taking bribes.
The cause of Kotchian's death was not immediately known.
He initially declined to testify on the scandal to Japanese prosecutors as he reportedly wanted to avoid facing charges.
Kotchian later made detailed statements about Tanaka getting bribes over sales of Lockheed TriStar jets to All Nippon Airways when he responded to questions by a U.S. court at the request of the Tokyo District Court.
Tanaka was found guilty in 1983 at the Tokyo District Court, and an appeal to the high court was turned down in 1987. Tanaka died in 1993 while an appeal to the Supreme Court was pending.
Kotchian was born in July 1914 in North Dakota and graduated from Stanford University.