Aomori Prefectural Housing Supply Public Corp. said Tuesday it has filed a criminal charge in Chile against the Chilean wife of a Japanese embezzling suspect in a bid to reclaim some of its money.
Corporation officials said Anita Ester Alvarado Munoz, 29, illegally listed the pair's real estate holdings in Chile as her own when she transferred them to a Cuban man, with whom she is believed to be engaged.
Under Chilean law, assets made in a marriage belong to the husband.
Yuji Chida, the 45-year-old husband of Alvarado, stands accused of embezzling about 1.46 billion yen from the housing corporation in Aomori since 1993 and giving at least 810 million yen of it to his wife.
He was in charge of accounting at the corporation before his arrest in December.
The corporation said it has also confirmed the authenticity of an earlier local report that the Santiago Court ordered the seizure Friday of a luxurious house and other real estate she owns, confiscating assets worth about 180 million yen.
Alvarado denied the report Sunday, according to Chilean newspapers.
The corporation also said the court ordered her on July 3 not to leave the country for 60 days and has told police to investigate the case. She also has been summoned to the court, it added.
Alvarado has maintained she did not know the money had been illegally obtained.