A senior Foreign Ministry official who is suspected of embezzling money from a special state fund spent about 170 million yen to buy 14 racehorses and keep them since 1997, sources said Monday.
During the same period, the 55-year-old official earned nearly 60 million yen by having his horses take part in races and by betting money on the races, the sources said. The diplomat, who has not been identified, has admitted depositing money from the special fund into his own bank accounts.
The official earlier reportedly told people close to him that he had enough money to buy the horses and keep them because of assets he had inherited from his father.