Lower House member Muneo Suzuki, indicted in a bribery scandal involving a lumber company, also accepted at least 1 million yen in unreported money from a construction firm in Hokkaido in the late 1990s as reward for favors in a public works project, informed sources said Saturday.
Prosecutors suspect that Suzuki, 54, may have abused his authority as then chief of the Hokkaido Development Agency to favor Shimada Kensetsu, based in Abashiri in northeastern Hokkaido, in projects ordered by the regional development bureau, the sources said.
Special investigators from the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office plan to examine the allegation further to determine whether they can establish another bribery case against the lawmaker, they said.
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