OSAKA — Police searched the offices of a self-styled investment advisory firm Wednesday over allegations that it solicited money for stock investments without a broker's license, investigation sources said.

Kokusai Toshi Keizai Kenkyujo, based in Osaka's Chuo Ward, is believed to have collected hundreds of millions of yen from investors across the country.

The number of instances in which the company failed to invest clients' funds in stocks and refused to comply with their demands for the money to be returned also leads Osaka Prefectural Police to suspect fraud, the sources said.