Police raided offices and gathering spots Wednesday linked to Honohana Sanpogyo over allegations that the religious sect duped thousands of people into paying large sums to cure serious illnesses it diagnosed through reading the soles of their feet.
Some 100 investigators from the Metropolitan Police Department and Shizuoka Prefectural Police searched the group's head office in Fuji, Shizuoka Prefecture, shortly after 7:30 a.m.
Investigators also searched 73 other offices and gathering spots in nine prefectures, including a Tokyo head office in Shibuya Ward and the house of guru Hogen Fukunaga.