The office of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is suspected of discarding receipts issued by Tokyo hotels that may have showed it covered part of the costs for dinner functions held for supporters, sources close to the matter said Wednesday.

Prosecutors, who are investigating the case as a possible violation of the political funds control law, have also found that the amount covered totaled more than 9 million yen ($86,000) over a five-year period through last year, the sources said.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (R) is pictured after attending a House of Representatives plenary session in Tokyo on Nov. 24, 2020. His office is suspected of covering a shortfall of millions of yen spent on annual parties held between 2013 and 2019 at a Tokyo hotel for supporters during his time as leader, prompting prosecutors to question one of his secretaries over a possible violation of the political funds control law, sources with knowledge of the situation said the same day. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

The scandal could deal a blow to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who served as chief Cabinet secretary under Abe before replacing him in September.

According to the sources, the two hotels issued receipts to a fund management organization headed by Abe, which is believed to have covered the expenses.

While Abe's office may have disposed of the receipts, prosecutors have been examining hotel documentation related to the dinner functions, which an Abe supporters' group hosted on the eve of annual cherry blossom viewing parties that the then-prime minister held in the capital from 2013 to 2019.

After the scandal came to light in November last year, Abe told the Diet that documents such as cost estimates and receipts were not issued by the hotels.

Opposition parties requested that the hotels reissue the documents but were refused on grounds of "business confidentiality."

Prosecutors have questioned one of Abe's secretaries who heads the supporters' group, a person in charge of accounting at his fund management organization as well as others.

At least one of them has confirmed that some costs were covered by the office.

Speaking in a Diet session Wednesday, Suga dismissed a request for the government to reopen a probe into the annual cherry blossom viewing parties, saying it is not appropriate for the government to take such action at the moment as the investigation is under way.

According to the sources, the total bills for the dinner functions at the two hotels exceeded 20 million yen over five years, far higher than the amounts collected from the sale of tickets.

Abe's office is believed to have covered a shortfall of at least 1 million yen every year and up to 2.5 million yen in some years.

Banquet attendees, many of whom were voters in Abe's constituency in Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan, were charged 5,000 yen each, even though such events at the five-star hotels normally cost about 11,000 yen or more per head.

About 800 people went to the 2019 function.