OSAKA -- Osaka police have arrested a 31-year-old man on suspicion he used forged health insurance certificates to open bank accounts under false names, officials said Monday.
Police suspect that Teruhiko Ikeda, whom they describe as jobless and with no fixed address, had "sold" the bank accounts through the Internet. His customers may have used the accounts to perpetrate fraud and other crimes, the officials said.
According to police, Ikeda instructed his accomplice, Kyuzo Takehara, 50, to open five accounts at a bank in Kyoto under a false identity by using forged health insurance certificates in May 1998.
Both Ikeda and Takehara have been arrested for alleged forgery and use of private documents.
Takehara told police that he had opened about 50 accounts at banks in Tokyo and Kyoto in a similar way. Police suspect many of the accounts were sold through the Internet.
Police discovered the illicit business after one of their customers, Takahiro Taniguchi, 26, was arrested on suspicion of fraud by collecting money based on false claims on his Web site that he had concert tickets for popular singers.