KOBE (Kyodo) The president of a Tokyo-based market research company and five others were arrested Wednesday for allegedly selling the firm's unlisted shares with a bogus assurance they would be listed, police said.
They said the sales by Hirofumi Usui, 53, of e-Marketing Inc. and the other suspects pulled in roughly ¥15 billion from several hundred people across Japan.
Hyogo police suspect the money may have been diverted to fund underworld syndicates.
The suspects were arrested on the specific allegation of selling ¥560,000 worth of shares to a man in Kakogawa, Hyogo Prefecture, in 2007.
He was allegedly told the shares would go on the market "for sure" and that their price would go up.