Police have arrested the former chairman of a Tokyo-based hotel operator and nine others on suspicion of defrauding elderly investors out of deposits by reneging on promised high returns for resort club memberships.
Arrested between Monday and Tuesday, Masahiro Ohigashi, 59, former chairman of Okamoto Hotel Systems in Chuo Ward, and the nine others allegedly collected more than ¥20 billion in deposits from about 8,000 investors across Japan for memberships in a club launched in 2005 that covers almost a dozen hotels.
The police said they suspect the yakuza was behind the scam.