Asahi: Prosecutors to drop case against Hatoyama
After scrutinizing the personal assets of Yukio Hatoyama and his mother, prosecutors will drop their investigation into the prime minister over a scandal involving fake donations, sources said. The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has failed to uncover any evidence that shows Hatoyama was directly involved in the falsified political fund reports of his fund management organization, Yuai Seikei Konwa-kai (fraternity association of politics and economics), from 2004 through 2008, the sources said. Investigators suspect Hatoyama's former state-funded aide, who was in charge of compiling the political fund reports, acted alone in faking entries. The entries, concerning 200 million yen in donations, listed as individual donors anonymous people, the deceased and those who never contributed to Hatoyama's organization. The reports also contained padded revenues, worth 150 million yen, from the sales of tickets to political fund-raising parties, the sources said...Prosecutors have found that most of the money used for the false entries came from funds belonging to Hatoyama himself or his mother, Yasuko. Therefore, they believe there is little need to question the prime minister, the sources said. The intensive investigation into the prime minister could end up being a case of revised tax returns...more...