Hatoyama: Aide listed dead donors

Opposition leader Yukio Hatoyama acknowledged that dead people were listed as individual donors in his political fund reports, but said the deed was perpetrated solely by an aide trying to protect his job.

Hatoyama said at a news conference at the Diet on Tuesday that his state-funded aide in charge of accounting acted on his own without the knowledge of Hatoyama or anybody else.

He said the aide was apparently embarrassed that he had not collected enough donations from individuals, so he used Hatoyama's own money, as well as the names of the dead "donors," to inflate the amount.

"I think it was out of self-protection (on the part of the aide)," said Hatoyama's lawyer, who investigated the matter.

Over four years starting in 2005, the income and expenditure reports on political funds for Hatoyama's fund management organization, Yuai Seikei Konwa-kai (fraternity association of politics and economics), listed 193 "donations" worth 21.78 million yen.

Although Hatoyama said this amount was his own money, the names of about 90 people, including some who were dead, were reported as the individual donors, some more than once.

Between 4 million yen and 7 million yen a year was donated in this manner.

The Minshuto leader apologized to the public for the trouble and acknowledged that he bears a supervisory responsibility. However, he indicated he will not step down.

"I'd like to fulfill my duties as (Minshuto) president while carrying out my responsibility for accountability," he said.

Hatoyama also said he fired the aide and amended the political fund reports so that the fabricated donations are listed as loans from himself.

Lawmakers of the ruling parties are already pursuing Hatoyama's political responsibility on grounds the actions of the aide violate the Political Fund Control Law.

They have demanded that Hatoyama provide more details, including proof that the falsified donations came from his own pocket.

Another political fund scandal involving a Minshuto leader could deal a serious blow to the party's chances of ousting the Liberal Democratic Party from power in the next Lower House election, which must be called by September.

The main opposition party seemed to have been recovering from an earlier political fund scandal, also involving a state-funded aide, that forced Ichiro Ozawa to resign as Minshuto president in May.

Hatoyama and his lawyer said the aide had not told the politician nor his policy aide, who was responsible for accounting of Hatoyama's fund management organization, about the fabrication.

"I should have asked for donations in person but I neglected to do so. So I repeatedly made false accounts (in the political fund reports)," the lawyer quoted the aide as saying.

The money used came from funds that Hatoyama had entrusted to the aide in case political funds ran short.

Hatoyama said, "I presume that since there were so few donations from individuals for me, (the aide) thought it would be embarrassing if the fact came into light."

However, the amount of donations from individuals for the Minshuto leader can hardly be called embarrassing.

According to Hatoyama's political fund reports between 2003 and 2007, he received 50 million yen to 110 million yen a year in individual donations.

Even if the 21.78 million yen in Hatoyama's money is subtracted, the annual sums far surpass those of Minshuto and LDP leaders in recent years, including former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Ozawa.

Of the total amount of donations to Hatoyama from individuals during the five years since 2003, 230 million yen came from anonymous donors.

The Political Fund Control Law exempts from obligation to list names and addresses of individual donors in the report if the annual donation does not exceed 50,000 yen and the donor agrees not to apply for a tax deduction on the donation.(IHT/Asahi: July 2,2009)