A former senior official of a liquor retailer union was arrested Wednesday for allegedly embezzling about 16.5 million yen from the union's pension fund.

Hideo Seki, 49, former secretary general of the All Japan Liquor Merchants Co-operative Association, is suspected of transferring about 16.5 million yen in October 1999 from the fund to a bank account he held under the alias Shuichi Suzuki, police said.

Seki has owned up to the embezzlement, according to sources.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police will investigate what happened to another 246 million yen that disappeared from the pension fund, the sources said.

It is suspected some of that money was used to bribe lawmakers to stop deregulation of the retail liquor industry, the sources said.

"I have kept notes on all of when, where and what I gave to politicians. If I were to be arrested, I would disclose everything," Seki told Kyodo News before his arrest.

In addition to the missing pension money, another 250 million yen is believed to have been lent illegally to an acquaintance of Seki out of a secret account.

The former official also is suspected of breach of trust for causing a huge loss to the union when he invested about 14.4 billion yen from the pension fund in foreign bonds.

Seki allegedly had the 14.4 billion yen invested between January and May 2003 in a British mutual pension business, after the British firm's poor performance in 2002.

The firm collapsed in June 2004 and the union lost most of the investment.

Earlier this month, police raided more than 10 locations, including the union office and Seki's home, both in Tokyo.