Chief of huge MRI Ponzi scheme that straddled Tokyo and Las Vegas gets 50-year term in U.S.
The former head of an investment firm that operated in Tokyo and Las Vegas was sentenced Thursday to 50 years in prison, for swindling thousands of Japanese victims in what prosecutors called a $1.5 billion international Ponzi scheme that ranks among the largest-ever fraud ...
Under Japan's revised anti-gangster law, yakuza boss told to pay damages for money transfer scam
A court on Thursday ordered the head of the Sumiyoshi-kai crime syndicate to pay damages over money transfer scams committed by a fraud group formed by an affiliated gang member. The Mito District Court ordered Isao Seki, head of Japan's second largest crime syndicate, and ...
Three people pleaded guilty Wednesday over a bogus land sale in Tokyo that targeted home builder Sekisui House Ltd. in 2017. According to the indictment, the three colluded to swindle Sekisui House out of about ¥5.5 billion ($50 million) in a fraudulent deal to sell ...
Japanese government-linked agency suspects fraudulent use of its Flat 35 housing loans
Flat 35 long-term fixed-rate housing loans provided by the government-linked Japan Housing Finance Agency may have been fraudulently used for real estate investment, it has been learned. The agency is now investigating the details. If any case of abuse is confirmed, the agency will demand ...
New Tennessee law will punish groups for errors in signing up voters
Tennessee's governor signed GOP-backed legislation Thursday that would likely make his state the first to fine voter registration groups for turning in too many incomplete sign-up forms, prompting a federal lawsuit and protests by critics who said it would suppress efforts to register minorities ...
Chinese family lost $6.5 million in Stanford admissions scam
The mother of a Chinese student admitted Friday she paid $6.5 million to the man at the heart of a U.S. college admission scandal but said she was duped into believing the sum was a charitable donation. American academia has been rocked by a colossal ...
Aluminum fraud caused satellite failures that cost $700 million, NASA says
Faulty materials supplied by a unit of Norsk Hydro ASA, one of the world's top aluminum producers, led to more than $700 million of losses in two failed NASA satellite launch missions, according to an investigation by the space agency. NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory mission ...
Ex-Czech defender Tomas Repka receives two-year sentence for fraud
Former Czech defender Tomas Repka, who suited up for Fiorentina and West Ham, was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison for fraud. An appeals court added nine months to the 15-month sentence originally handed down in February against Repka, 45, for selling a Mercedes ...
Imperial swindle: Scammers reportedly handing out Japanese flags and then asking for money
Reports of con artists across Japan taking advantage of the celebratory mood ahead of this week’s Imperial succession have caused a stir on social media.
Police raid over 40 offices of Japan Life, bankrupt firm suspected of defrauding elderly customers
Police on Thursday conducted a raid on offices of Japan Life Co., a bankrupt company suspected of having engaged in a fraudulent rental business, for allegedly failing to inform a customer in 2017 about its excessive debts when concluding a contract, an investigative source ...
Scandal-plagued Wells Fargo's interim CEO shouted down at bank's annual meeting
C. Allen Parker is finding out how tough it can be to head up a scandal-plagued company. The interim chief executive officer of Wells Fargo & Co. was interrupted more than a dozen times during the bank's annual meeting in Dallas on Tuesday by activist ...
Japanese police arrive in Thailand to investigate phone scam
Japanese police investigators arrived in Thailand on Tuesday to probe a phone scam in which more than 200 people in Japan are believed to have been swindled out of some ¥220 million. Fifteen Japanese men, arrested by Thai police on allegations they worked in the ...
