Takefumi Horie, the indicted former president of Livedoor, was on Thursday accused of ordering company officials to make a Y30m ($254,000) payment to a close relative of the top official of Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi’s ruling party.

Hisayasu Nagata, a member of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, told parliament he had obtained a copy of an email in which Mr Horie instructed staff to pay a consulting fee to an individual identified as the son of Tsutomu Takebe, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic party.