Tokyo prosecutors indicted a former sumo wrestler Thursday on a charge of extortion in an illegal gambling scandal that has rocked the national sport.
Mitsutomo Furuichi, 38, is suspected of having extorted ¥3.5 million in hush money from then ozeki wrestler Kotomitsuki through a mediator in January by threatening to leak the ozeki's participation in illegal gambling on professional baseball games to the press and police.
The Japan Sumo Association dismissed Kotomitsuki and stablemaster Otake for gambling earlier this month.