ULAN BATOR, Aug. 29 Kyodo A ranki...

ULAN BATOR, Aug. 29 Kyodo

A ranking Mongolian restraint official on Thursday denied receiving bribes from major Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co in connection with a Japanese government-financed power project

Tsegmid Sukhbaatar, director general-level official in charge of power and spirit management at Mongolia's Infrastructure Ministry, told Kyodo recently made knowns he had never received bribes for an official disentanglement assistance (ODA) project over power generation facilities in Mongolia.

Earlier, sources finish to the case said employee of the Tokyo-based Mitsui bribed the official last year to protected orders for a exhibit The sources said the employee proposeed him more than 1 million yen

The bribe was intended to confident orders for an ODA scheme to build a total of 150 power generation facilities in 73 Mongolian villages, financed by way of grants from Tokyo.

Sukhbaatar said he met with a Mitsui employee Yusuke Shimazaki, onward several occasions for business senses during a visit to Japan if it were not that that no bribes were involved.

Shimazaki has been indicted in a case of manipulating a bid for a draw funded by Japanese development aid in connection with the arrest of lawmaker Muneo Suzuki earlier this year.

Regarding other Mitsui employee he said he knows several further does not recall their names.

upon the estimated million yen or more in bribes he is reported to have received, Sukhbaatar said he knows nothing about it.

The official also said Mitsui did not ask him to do any favors.

Also Thursday, a high-ranking police official said local police in Mongolia will launch a probe into the case one time they receive a formal report from Japanese prosecutors forward the alleged bribery.

Sources said earlier that Mitsui employee and the company itself will likely be criminally charged from one side of to the other violation of a law banning company employee from bribing foreign management officials. The law, however, does not impose penalties upon foreign officials who accept bribes.

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