TOKYO (TR) – The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday prosecuted the former wife of the mayor of Yamanashi City, Yamanashi Prefecture over the alleged swindle of nearly 400 million yen from a man in Saitama Prefecture via an investment scam, reports TBS News (July 18).
According to the indictment filed with the Tokyo District Court, Harumi Mochizuki, the 61-year-old director of Sashide Sekizai, allegedly defrauded the man, aged in his 60s, out of 376 million yen as a part of an investment scam in which she falsely promised to pay out dividends on invested capital between March of 2011 and February of 2013.
Minetsugu Koshizuka, a 63-year-old former doctor who was also accused of being an accomplice, was not prosecuted in the case.
After her arrest in June, Michizuki told police, “I had the intention of returning the money I received at some point.”
Work at cemeteries
According to credit records, Sashide Sekizai was founded in 1999 as a company that manufactured gravestones and performed work at cemeteries. As of 2016, it had accumulated debts of 580 million yen.
In December, the Tachikawa branch of the Tokyo District Court ordered Mochizuki to pay compensation of 42.2 million yen to five plaintiffs, including a man in Tokyo, who sued the suspect over a similar fraud. The plaintiffs had sought compensation of 230 million yen.
Divorced in February
Seiki Mochizuki, the husband of Harumi, was once the director of the company. After being elected to the prefectural assembly, he passed the company’s presidency to Harumi, his then wife. He was first elected mayor of Yamanashi City in 2014. The couple divorced this past February.
