5 Baseball Players Plead Guilty to Tax Charges

Five of 10 professional Japanese baseball players charged with income tax evasion have pleaded guilty, the Kyodo News reported in Tokyo. The players were accused of concealing income and evading tax by falsely recording expenses on forged receipts. Prosecutors said Hiroki Kokubo, 26, of the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, evaded about $215,400 in income tax in 1994, the largest sum allegedly evaded by any of the 10 players. Kokubo was run-batted-in king for 1997 in the Pacific League. Four others on trial with Kokubo also pleaded guilty. They are scheduled to be sentenced in January. The five were indicted last month, without being arrested, together with five other players on similar charges.