A police raid of eight facilities related to Aum Shinrikyo on Tuesday revealed that major companies and government agencies had placed orders with a computer software company believed to be a major source of funds for the cult, investigators said. Police searched the facilities on suspicion that a cultist lied in a contract he made with a real estate agency when he rented an apartment in Tokyo's Arakawa Ward. The facilities raided include a computer software development firm in the ward and the cult's Yokohama branch. Investigators said that documents confiscated in the raid showed that the Defense Agency and the Construction Ministry were among the firm's customers. Also on the customer ledger were the Education Ministry, the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry, the Adachi Ward Office and NTT Corp., according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. In most cases, the Aum-related software company used a different name on receipts and other documentation to conceal its links to the cult, officials said. Government officials expressed surprise and concern over the revelation, and the Defense Agency said it would stop using a communications system for the Ground Self-Defense Force developed by the firm beginning today. Agency officials said the firm in question produced components for a system that a major electronics company had won a contract for through open bidding. They stressed the orders were not placed directly. Police said a 33-year-old Aum follower falsely claimed he was not a member of the cult when he signed a two-year contract to rent the room late in July. They said he also told the real estate agency that he would be the sole occupant of the apartment. , which he would use as a residence and an office. They said the man and three other Aum members set up a software development firm in the apartment and lived and worked there. Aum now calls itself Aleph.
