In 2009, Ozawa became implicated in the falsification of political funding reports on 400 million yen of campaign donations to his political organization. He resigned as DPJ president in May 2009, while the investigation was still ongoing, and was succeeded by Yukio Hatoyama. Nonetheless, during the August 2009 general election, Ozawa acted as the DPJ's chief election strategist and remained a very powerful figure in the party. The DPJ won an overwhelming victory in the 2009 election and Hatoyama became prime minister, and it was believed that Ozawa's influence would increase further.