Ex-Moritomo Gakuen boss to be investigated for alleged fraud

Japan Times -- Jun 17

Prosecutors are set to search sites this weekend linked to the nationalist school operator at the center of a scandal tied to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife, for evidence of fraud related to subsidies for its preschool, investigative sources said Friday.

The criminal investigation into Yasunori Kagoike, 64, would come some four months after the school operator, Moritomo Gakuen, was found to have received a hefty ¥800 million ($72,800) discount on state-owned land in Osaka. The revelations fueled scrutiny of Abe and his wife, Akie, who was named honorary principal of an elementary school Kagoike planned to open on the land, and even went there to give a speech promoting Moritomo Gakuen.

In May, the prosecutors received a criminal complaint alleging that Tsukamoto Kindergarten in Osaka, run by Moritomo Gakuen, had swindled some ¥62 million in subsidies from the Osaka Prefectural Government.

They have also received a complaint alleging that Kagoike illegally won ¥56 million in subsidies to build the elementary school, which was scheduled to open i April. He is suspected of inflating the construction costs to get the subsidies.

Adding to the suspicions, three versions of the construction contract for the school listing differing cost amounts, were submitted when he applied for various subsidies.

Jun 17 (ANNnewsCH) - 森友学園系列の保育園で保育士が不足している問題で、来月1日にも事業停止命令を出す方針の大阪市が16日朝から保育園の立ち入り調査を進めています。 「高等森友学園保育園」は、経営を存続するためには大阪市の基準を満たす「常勤保育士6人」を確保する必要があります。