Dentsu, Hakuhodo & ADK under investigation in Tokyo Olympics bid rigging scandal
Japan’s three top advertising agencies are under investigation on suspicion of involvement in contract bid-rigging for the Tokyo Olympics.
Japanese officials are investigating the country's three biggest ad agencies in bid-rigging scandal / Image by Vik M from Pixabay
Dentsu, Hakuhodo and ADK Advertising have all been implicated in the investigation following allegations a former Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics organising committee executive allegedly received ¥200m ($1.4m) in bribes from five companies.
Japanese prosecutors and representatives from the Japan Fair Trade Commission have conducted raids at the offices of Denstu and Hakuhodo as well as ad firm Tokyu Agency and three event production companies Cerespo, Same Two and Fuji Creative.
ADK Holdings came forward last week to report the agency’s role in bid rigging for test events at planned Tokyo Games venues, according to reports. The test events were conducted to safeguard event facilities and identify any issues ahead of the Olympics. ADK secured contracts for three events in 2018 valued at ¥100m.
The investigation is examining allegations that 26 open bids for the rights to plan 56 test events were rigged, with the total contracts totalling more than ¥500 m.