Japan's financial watchdog has asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to provide information it needs to file a criminal complaint against the head of a Nevada-based asset manager suspected of swindling investors out of billions of yen, market sources said.

The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission aims to file a complaint against Edwin Yoshihiro Fujinaga, head of MRI International Inc., which is suspected of losing more than ¥130 billion of its clients' money.

The SESC raided the Tokyo office of MRI and other locations in April in connection with the case, but has not been able to interview Fujinaga, who lives in the United States.