A STORY TO TELL NO. 2

A Japanese Bribe
Lockheed aircraft’s involvement on the Japanese Bribe for a Japanese Aircraft contract started in 1958 because of the competition between Lockheed and Grumman Aircraft which is an American firm. In Mr. William Findley’s testimony, a partner in Arthur Young Co. on the same year engaged in the service of name? Kodoma who has strong political ties to the officials of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Seventeen years later while the company was still negotiating the contract, a report was given to the CIA by an American Embassy employee.
Lockheed was desperate to sell planes to any major Japanese airline because of its series of financial disasters and wasn’t able to recover which led it to bankruptcy in 1970, but through a controversial government loan of $250 million in 1970 did the company narrowly avert disaster. Mr. A. Carl Kutchian, president of Lockheed was anxious to get sales according to contract. In 1972, Lockheed again hired Kodoma to secure the sale of its aircraft and eventually succeed in engineering contract with All-Nippon Airways. To ensure the sale, Kodama ask for & received from Lockheed about $9 million and as much money went to the prime minister Kukeo Tonaka and other government official, who here supposed to intercede with ALL-Nippon Airways in behalf of Lockheed. The Negotiation nettled over $ 1.3 billion in contract with Lockheld.
In June 1979, Lockheed pleaded guilty to concealing the Japanese Bribe from the Government by falsely writing off as “marketing costs”. Lockheed was not changed with bribery but with four counts of fraud and four count of making statement to the government. Mr. Kutchian forced to resign and Kodoma together with Tanaka was arrested.