Tokyo police are expected to establish a mass fraud case against the head of a Tokyo-based investment group for allegedly swindling money from tens of thousands of people, according to police sources.

The Metropolitan Police Department will likely arrest the leader of the G.O. group, Genta Ogami, 39, and the group's senior members as early as this month, they said.

The group, established by Ogami in 1996, is suspected of swindling most of the 40 billion yen they had collected as investments from more than 30,000 people across Japan, the sources said.

Police searched the group's offices on March 6, on the suspicion that the group had been collecting deposits without a license. They also questioned Ogami, the group's founder and honorary chairman.

Analyzing documents seized from the organization, police have concluded it is possible to establish a fraud case against Ogami, the sources said.

Under the group's so-called investment scheme, group investors received a catalog of merchandise -- ranging from jewelry to household electronics goods -- every month. Investors were asked to pick products they thought would sell well and were then asked to invest 20,000 yen to 50,000 yen to help advertise the products.

The group was supposed to spend the money to advertise the products in newspapers and on television for mail-order service. It promised investors they would receive a return in accordance with sales of the products.

But the group has made no profit in any business, including the mail-order sales. Most of the money collected is believed to have been spent for the group's operational funds and Ogami's personal expenses, the sources said.

The G.O. group also sold bonds with a 13 percent to 15 percent annual return to raise funds to purchase a bank. It bought Unitrust Development Bank in the Philippines for about 1.3 billion yen in September 2001.

G.O. solicited investors to deposit money into the bank, promising an annual interest rate of 8 percent on savings, according to the sources.

The suspected fraud came to light in January when many of the investors took their cases to consumer protection centers nationwide.

The G.O. group expanded its business overseas, but its investment schemes caused trouble for a number of people in the Philippines and Indonesia.

In April, the Tokyo District Court, acting on a complaint from a group of lawyers representing people who claim to have been defrauded by the group, declared Ogami and five firms in the G.O. group bankrupt.