Ex-chief of Japan's Skating Federation arrested for alleged embezzlement

Former Japan Skating Federation head Katsuichiro Hisanaga was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly embezzling 5 million yen (about 42,400 U.S. dollars) from the federation in 2002, Kyodo News said.

Hisanaga, who was federation president for six years until he quit the post in June 2004, has been questioned by the metropolitan police earlier in the day. Two other suspects were also arrested along with him.

The 75-year-old man is suspected of getting a Tokyo company to charge the federation some 5 million yen more than the actual cost for contracts related to the World Figure Skating Championships in Nagano prefecture in March 2002, the report said.

The money is believed to have been used privately by Hisanaga and others, and the amount embezzled in the five years until he quit in 2004 may be around 50 million yen (424,000 dollars), it said.

Hisanaga himself has denied all the allegations.

With the revelation that a loss of about 100 million yen (847,000 dollars) was incurred in a federation department, the scandal of the dubious use of federation money by the president was disclosed in March, leading to eight directors of the federation to resign in April to take responsibility.

Seiko Hashimoto, a former speed skater and a bronze medalist at the 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics, was then chosen as president of the federation.

Source: Xinhua