KANAGAWA (TR) – Kanagawa Prefectural Police have arrested two men who are suspected of concealing illegal profits earned from an online casino site and using them to purchase an apartment in Tokyo, reports Nippon News Network (July 18).
According to the police, Yoshinori Kurata, 42, and Yoshifumi Kuroki, 52, are suspected of concealing illegal profits earned from an online casino site in 2022 and using more than 98 million yen to purchase the apartment in a high-rise in Harumi, Chuo Ward.
Police did not reveal whether the suspects admit to violating the Organized Crime Punishment Act regarding concealment of criminal proceeds.
According to police, the two suspects conspired to create false documents stating that the funds were a loan to Kurata from a non-existent paper company when they purchased the apartment around July 2022.
The apartment was on an upper floor of the 51-story high-rise apartment building. Kurata made the payment in cash.
Money laundering
Kurata runs a company that manages payments. Last month, he was one of seven suspects accused of money laundering, reports the Sankei Shimbun (June 25).
According to police, he and the other suspects laundered over 2.6 billion yen in bets on overseas online casinos by transferring the money to an account managed by his company.
In April and May of last year, the company concealed a total of about 2.629 billion yen in casino bets collected from about 3,600 users by depositing the money into two accounts managed by his company 41,000 times in total.
Police said previously that Kurata and his group may have been involved in the operation of payment systems related to at least six online casino sites. The two accounts were in the name of a paper company. It is believed that the company managed about 500 accounts, including these, and repeatedly transferred funds.
