TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a 71-year-old man who is suspected of carrying out a fraud in the purchase of a property in Yokohama City more than one decade ago.
On Friday, Mitsuo Kuraishi arrived at Narita International Airport on a flight from the Philippines, reports Jiji Press (Nov. 16).
Police later accused Kuraishi of being a member of a fraud ring that impersonated a man in his 50s who is the owner of an approximately 800-square-meter plot of land in Fujimigaoka, Tsuzuki Ward around mid-December 2013.
The ring then allegedly used a forged official document bearing a seal to defraud a real estate company in Tokyo out of a total of 123 million yen in cash and checks under the pretext of purchasing the property.
Police have not revealed whether Kuraishi has admitted to the charges.
Jimenshi
According to police, Kuraishi is a central member of a so-called jimenshi group, which buys and sells land by posing as the owner. The suspect is believed to have acted as an intermediary who spread false information that the land was for sale.
Kuraishi and the other suspects forged documents. For example, they modified the certificate of registered seal. Before negotiating the contract with the real estate company, they had thoroughly studied the landscape and surrounding conditions of the land in order to appear to be the real owner. They also rushed to complete the deal by December.
When the male owner learned of the suspicious land transaction, he submitted a report to the Legal Affairs Bureau to prevent fraudulent registration. After the contract was concluded, he realized that the real estate company had registered the transfer of ownership of the land.
Kuraishi is believed to have received more than 30 million yen as his share. In June 2019, he fled to the Philippines just before a member of the group was arrested in connection with a different crime.
