Japanese prosecutors on Tuesday here searched the office and residence of a ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmaker on suspicion of salary fraud, local media reported.
Megumi Hirose, 58, a member of the House of Councillors, the upper parliamentary chamber, is suspected of defrauding the state of several million yen, or more than 10,000 dollars, in salary for her second public secretary in 2022 and 2023, Kyodo News reported.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office suspected that the second public secretary, the wife of Hirose's chief secretary, was a nominal secretary and did not actually work for the lawmaker, the report said.
The prosecutors are expected to investigate the real work status of the secretary and the flow of funds related to her salary by analyzing documents seized during the search and interviewing Hirose on a voluntary basis, it added.
Hirose told reporters after the search began that she was not sure what was happening and said she would deal with the matter after carefully examining it.
The searches came after the weekly Shukan Shincho reported the allegations in March, which Hirose denied in a statement on her website, saying they were "groundless" and that the secretary was indeed working, although it was not in the public eye.
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