OSAKA -- The former president of failed photocopier maker Mita Industrial Co. will soon be served an arrest warrant on suspicion of bribing a certified public accountant and asking him to look over the firm's suspected falsification of accounts, investigative sources said Monday.

The Osaka Public Prosecutor's Office's special investigative squad suspects that Yoshihiro Mita, 59, provided "an excessive amount of pay" to Kunihiro Murai, 58, the accountant, in exchange for turning a blind eye to the firm's falsified financial documents, in violation of the Commercial Code, the sources said.

It will also be the second arrest for Murai. Murai is believed to have received 30 million yen a year for his work as the sole public accountant who served as an outside auditor of the firm's financial statements, the sources said.

Murai and Mita have been friends since elementary school, the sources said. Murai has told the investigators that he did something no licensed accountant should do because his longtime friend asked him to, the sources said.

Mita and Murai were arrested in October on suspicion of falsifying financial statements of the failed firm and paying shareholders' dividends when the firm was in the red.

Mita Industrial applied Aug. 10 for rescue under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law, effectively going bankrupt with debts of more than 200 billion yen.

The Osaka District Court has approved the start of the company's rehabilitation with support from Kyocera Corp.