Former BIT Mining CEO Accused of Bribing Diet Member; Allegations Related to Bid for Integrated Resort Project

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:32 JST, December 1, 2024

A former chief executive officer of 500.com (now BIT Mining Ltd.) has been indicted on charges of paying bribes to a Japanese Diet member and others, the U.S. Justice Department has announced.

The bribery and other charges against Pan Zhengming were related to a bid for an integrated resort in Japan, and would constitute a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

500.com, a Chinese company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, has agreed to pay a $10 million penalty. The U.S. Justice Department said it obtained the cooperation of Japanese authorities in its investigation.

According to the indictment, Pan paid a Diet member about ¥2 million as a “lecture fee” around August 2017. A total of about ¥26.5 million in cash was given to the same Diet member and others around September 2017.

Around December that year, Pan also covered such expenditures as the cost of a private jet when the Diet member and others traveled to Macau.

The name of the Diet member has been withheld, but the indictment states that the person was then a high-ranking Japanese government official in charge of infrastructure, transportation and tourism.

Former House of Representatives member Tsukasa Akimoto, 53, was sentenced to four years in prison in first and second lower court rulings on several charges. Among them were accepting bribes totaling ¥7.6 million from 500.com from September 2017 to February 2018 in connection with a scandal involving an integrated resort project with a casino as its central attraction.

Akimoto served as the deputy minister in charge of the Cabinet Office and the deputy minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and appealed the high court ruling to the top court.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office’s investigation of that case has concluded.

The Chinese company is known to have said that it gave ¥1 million each to five Diet members, including Akimoto and Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, 67, in relation to the projects. Iwaya was then a senior member of a suprapartisan league of lawmakers who promote the resort project.

Asked by reporters about the claim, Iwaya said Friday he never received money from a Chinese company and has never been bribed. “I definitely have no association with the Chinese company that has been reported,” Iwaya said after a Cabinet meeting.