TOKYO (TR) – Police on Thursday announced the arrests of a 50-year-old company executive and five others for allegedly running a massive unregistered investment scheme that scooped up a staggering 87 billion yen over a decade, reports the Sankei Shimbun (May 14)
Yoji Osaka, a resident of Motoazabu, Minato Ward, and the de facto manager of the now-dissolved Tokyo-based investment firm Global Investment Lab, have been taken into custody by Tokyo Metropolitan Police.
The six suspects face charges of violating the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act by operating a financial business without registration.
Police have declined to disclose whether Osaka and the other suspects have admitted to the allegations.
“Guaranteed interest rate”
According to investigators, Osaka and his associates lured investors by hawking an overseas financial product dubbed “Sterling House Trust.”
The suspects solicited investments through study sessions and other means, claiming that “the investments are managed by an overseas corporation located in the British Virgin Islands, and the principal is guaranteed at an annual interest rate of 12 percent.”
The scheme was highly lucrative for the organizers. Police estimate that between August 2014 and July 2024, the group collected approximately 87 billion yen from roughly 7,300 investors.
However, the promises proved empty. By June of this year, all dividend payments to investors had suddenly halted, and victims found themselves completely unable to withdraw their original investments.
Closing in on the operation
The specific arrest charges stem from a period between May 2018 and October 2023, during which the six suspects allegedly conspired to solicit investments from 14 men and women ranging in age from their 20s to 60s.
Those 14 victims alone poured a combined 540 million yen into the unregistered scheme.
Authorities had already been closing in on the operation. In June 2024, the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission filed a petition with the Tokyo District Court regarding the firm’s illegal activities, prompting the court to issue an order banning the executives from continuing their solicitations.
