Three officials of a Tokyo-based consulting firm were indicted on Thursday for allegedly bribing Vietnamese officials for favors in a Japanese-funded urban railway project in Hanoi, according to a Kyodo News report.

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The suspected bribers at the Japan Transportation Consultants Inc. (JTC), including JTC’s 65-year-old former president Tamio Kakinuma, were charged with providing tens of millions of yen to officials of state-owned Vietnam Railways Corporation (VRC).

Under Japanese law, they could face five years in prison or a fine of up to 5 million yen if convicted.

The alleged kickbacks came to light in 2013 when Japan's tax authorities investigated JTC, the report said.

JTC provided some ¥160 million (US$1.58 million) in kickbacks in Vietnam, Indonesia and Uzbekistan, Kyodo News quoted a report released in April by JTC’s outside panel of lawyers as saying. 

In connection with this case, Vietnam has arrested six VRC officials on charges of “abusing power while on duty” and “irresponsibility causing serious consequences,” according to the Vietnam News Agency.

The alleged bribery case was uncovered when Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported in March that Kakinuma had admitted allegations that the firm paid ¥80 million ($782,640) in bribes in return for an ODA (official development assistance) project order worth ¥4.2 billion ($41,088,600) in Vietnam.

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