Tokyo – In a notable case of political fund misreporting, Hitoshi Nagai, a former accountant for a faction of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), was sentenced on Tuesday to two years in prison, suspended for five years, after failing to accurately report income from fundraising activities.

According to Namibia Press Agency, the Tokyo District Court handed down the sentence following Nagai’s admission of guilt in June. The 70-year-old was tasked with managing the finances for the faction previously led by Toshihiro Nikai, a former LDP secretary general. Nagai was indicted for underreporting approximately 380 million yen ($2.7 million) in income and expenditures over a five-year period ending in 2022.

The court’s decision to suspend Nagai’s sentence was influenced by his lack of personal gain from the misreported funds, as argued by his defense team. This case is part of a larger slush fund scandal that rocked the LDP last year, implicating five major factions, including Nikai’s. These factions were suspected of engaging in kickbacks to member lawmakers who exceeded their fundraising ticket sales quotas without properly recording these transactions in their political fund reports.

Earlier this year, local media highlighted that prosecutors indicted 11 individuals, encompassing both accountants and lawmakers, for similar offenses involving the non-disclosure of political funds.