The Japan Times reported today that the Nagoya District Public Prosecutor’s Office is set to seek a court order to freeze the assets of two individuals accused in a multibillion-yen forex investment fraud case, informed sources told the paper Monday. Nagoya is the center city of Japan’s third-largest metropolitan region.
The pair, including a man named Masaaki Ito, 48, managed an investment seminar organizing firm in Nagoya, have been indicted seven times so far on charges of defrauding a total of 156 subscribers to the firm’s FX margin trading services of ¥1.9 billion.
According to sources, the investment seminar collected about ¥11.7 billion from some 3,000 people by telling them that their money would be invested in currency trading and suggesting a monthly return of around 3%. However, the funds were never invested.
Of the money, ¥6 billion has been used as contract cancellation refunds and ¥270 million has been seized by authorities.
Highlights:
- after scrutinizing assets the suspects are still in holding.
- the prosecutor’s office plans to request Nagoya District Court to issue an asset preservation order by their next trial in May.
- investigators have already uncovered related bank deposits in and outside Japan.
If the two are convicted, the preserved assets will be distributed to the fraud victims. However, whether or not the totality of the funds can be recovered is still a question, and often times in these sorts of cases, they can not be. Stay tuned to this story…
To see the story from The Japan Times click here.