Police investigators reckon that a former senior Foreign Ministry official who allegedly embezzled hundreds of millions of yen from the government's VIP travel expense fund may have taken advantage of the lack of scrutiny by official accountants, government sources said Monday.
Katsutoshi Matsuo, 55, is suspected of diverting at least 560 million yen from the government's confidential diplomacy fund into his personal bank account and spent part of it on his own personal purchases, including a luxury Tokyo condominium, 15 race horses and several golf course memberships.
The Foreign Ministry on Thursday dismissed Matsuo, who was head of the ministry's division in charge of official overseas visits by VIPs when the alleged embezzlement took place from 1993 through 1999.