The French Financial Prosecutor’s office said that it has begun a criminal investigation into payments made by the Tokyo 2020 Olympic bid committee to a Singapore-based company.
It said in a statement released Thursday, that its preliminary investigations revealed two payments totalling 2.8 million Singapore dollars ($2 million or about N4 billion) and referenced “Tokyo 2020 Olympic Game bid” were made to a company called “Black Tidings” in July and October of 2013.
The timing of the two payments, given Japan was awarded the Summer Games in September 2013, “justified the initiation of a separate criminal investigation,” the prosecutor’s office claimed.
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In the statement, the prosecutor said details of the payments emerged during a separate investigation into corruption and money laundering that began following revelations of widespread doping in Russian sport.
It received the information in December 2015, and launched a judicial investigation into an unnamed person to “verify if corruption acts and laundering were committed during the process of designation of the organizing city of the Olympics 2020.”
Earlier this year, it was announced that the bidding and voting processes for the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games would be investigated by French prosecutors as part of a wider probe into corruption in athletics.
The bidding and voting process for the 2016 Olympics concluded in 2009, with Rio seeing off competition from Madrid, while Tokyo was awarded the 2020 Games ahead of Istanbul and Madrid in 2013.
Japanese authorities deny knowledge of any illicit payment and Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that it would abide by any investigation by French authorities.