A former lawmaker of Komeito, the junior party in the ruling coalition, was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison, suspended for three years, for illegally mediating public loans to companies hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Tokyo District Court found Kiyohiko Toyama, who stepped down as a House of Representatives member in February last year after an unrelated scandal, guilty of receiving payments in return for helping secure loans from Japan Finance Corp. between around March 2020 and June 2021, even though he was not licensed to do so. A fine of ¥1 million was imposed.

Presiding Judge Toshihiko Niwa said the ¥3.7 billion total in loan contracts signed showed Toyama repeatedly engaged in illegal brokering and collected commissions not only while he was a lawmaker but also after his resignation.