Hirotoshi Honda

Hirotoshi Honda, born on 11 April 1942, is a Japanese businessman and engineer and the founder of Mugen Motorsports. He is the son of Soichiro Honda, who founded the Honda Motor Company. In 2003 Japanese prosecutors arrested him on suspicion of tax evasion linked to Mugen, which has business relations with Honda Motor, alleging that he approved transactions that hid income through a company called MG Estate. He said he had signed the tax documents prepared by the company auditor without knowing of the crime, and he stepped down as company president after the arrest. Mugen operations and staff were handed to M-TEC, set up by a relative of Soichiro Honda. On 25 May 2006 the Saitama District Court found him not guilty, while ordering Mugen to pay a fine of 240 million yen and sentencing the auditor to three years in prison.