A Foreign Ministry bureaucrat dismissed last month for allegedly embezzling millions of yen in public funds may have diverted part of the money to his securities investments, sources said Sunday.

Katsutoshi Matsuo, 55, has been found to have opened accounts with several securities firms using either his name or that of a female friend's while chief of a Foreign Ministry division handling logistics for VIP trips from 1993 to 1999, according to investigative sources.

Matsuo allegedly used the accounts to funnel some 70 million yen into stock investments, and investigators from the Metropolitan Police Department suspect he got the cash from the government's lush diplomacy fund, the sources said.

An internal probe being conducted by the Foreign Ministry has so far found that Matsuo spent 140 million yen to buy 15 race horses, 43.2 million yen for golf memberships at five courses, and 88 million yen for a condominium in Tokyo.

Of these items, the ministry has concluded that Matsuo diverted at least 54 million yen of the diplomacy funds to which he had access to purchase five of the horses.

The ministry has fired Matsuo and filed a criminal complaint against him over the 54 million yen.

According to MDP sources, Matsuo opened the brokerage accounts between 1997 and 1998, the same period during which he allegedly began living his lavish lifestyle.

All the accounts, including those created in the name of his friend, are effectively managed by Matsuo, the sources said.

Police plan to track the money flows of the accounts to determine if he used government funds to fatten his securities investments, they said.