A major faction of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party once led by former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto has listed 1.56 billion yen in unaccounted-for expenditures in its 2004 political funds report released Friday.
The faction, officially known as the Heisei Study Group, had 297.2 million yen carried over to the current year, compared with a total of 1.85 billion yen reported in the 2003 political funds report.
The unexplained expenditures, totaling 1.56 billion, yen are the difference between the carried-over funds in 2003 and those in 2004.
Senior members of the faction, once the LDP's largest, claimed the carried-over funds were inflated until the 2003 report because the faction had not correctly recorded election-campaign funds and money disbursed to members.
In the 2004 political funds report, the group detailed uses of the funds -- including money given to its members for the House of Councilors election in July 2004 -- more than it had in past years, but 7.36 million yen is unaccounted for and has been listed as "other expenses."
The faction said in a statement attached to the 2004 report that a large amount of the expenditures was still unaccounted for because it had not been given a full explanation from its former treasurer, Toshiyuki Takigawa, on past treatment of the accounts.
Takigawa received a suspended 10-month prison term last December from the Tokyo District Court for his role in a political funds scandal involving the faction, which tried to conceal receipt of a 100 million yen check, handed personally to Hashimoto, from the Japan Dental Association.
The 100 million yen JDA donation in July 2001 that the faction did not declare was initially registered as part of the carried-over funds. Once the fraudulent listing was revealed, the faction corrected its report in July and registered it as a political donation.