「会社事務所に月２００万円」　経産省キャリアが虚偽申請―コロナ家賃支援金詐取

　新型コロナウイルスの影響で減収した中小企業などを対象とする「家賃支援給付金」の詐取事件で、逮捕された経済産業省キャリア官僚２人が給付金申請の際、会社事務所の家賃として毎月約２００万円を支払っていると申告していたことが２６日、捜査関係者への取材で分かった。
　捜査関係者によると、２人が会社事務所と申告していたのは自宅や実家などで、会社も実体がないペーパーカンパニーとみられている。警視庁捜査２課は虚偽申請の詳しい経緯を調べる。
　２人は、経産省経済産業政策局職員の桜井真（２８）、新井雄太郎（２８）両容疑者。家賃支援給付金約５５０万円をだまし取った疑いで逮捕されたが、同課は認否を明らかにしていない。（2021/06/26-04:48）

Two Japanese industry ministry bureaucrats who allegedly cheated the government out of COVID-19 grant money had falsely reported that they were paying office rent of some 2 million yen per month when applying for the grant, investigative sources said Saturday.
   Makoto Sakurai and Yutaro Arai, both 28 years old and working for the ministry's Economic and Industrial Policy Bureau, have been arrested by Tokyo police on suspicion of swindling the ministry out of some 5.5 million yen in rent subsidies provided to struggling small businesses and sole proprietors amid the pandemic.
   The two men applied for the subsidies using rental agreement documents saying that their company had three offices and had been paying monthly rent totaling some 2 million yen, according to the sources.
   But investigators found that the properties claimed to be the offices actually included Arai's house and the home of Sakurai's parents. The firm is believed to be a shell company with no real operations, and apparently there was no rent to be paid, according to the sources.
   Sakurai lives in a high-rise condominium complex in a posh district in central Tokyo and owns at least two foreign cars and a luxury watch, the sources said. The police believe that another grant may have been swindled.