An investigative committee has found that the Seibu Lions, a Pacific League baseball club, paid from 100,000 yen to 10 million yen to 170 managers and others affiliated with amateur baseball teams for 27 years until 2005 as rewards for helping the pro baseball team acquire new players. The revelation of organized improper conduct of this nature over a long period is a huge blot on the worlds of both professional and amateur baseball.
The payments started in 1978 when the Seibu Lions were inaugurated and continued just prior to a pledge of ethical conduct by all 12 Nippon Professional Baseball clubs in June 2005. The declaration prohibits providing cash gifts to amateur baseball people in connection with scouting of amateur players. Seibu's payments came in cash or gift certificates.
The total value amounted to about 135 million yen. Ironically, all the payments, which would have been off the book, received official approval from team officials and were recorded, thus enabling the investigative committee to issue an interim report in a relatively short time.