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Tokyo: Yakuza not indicted over ¥1.5 million swindle

TOKYO (TR) – Prosecutors have announced the non-indictment of a member of a criminal syndicate who was suspected in the swindle of 1.5 million yen from an elderly man in Tokyo last year, reports TBS News (Feb. 28).

On Thursday, prosecutors announced the non-indictment of Shingo Tsurumi, a 53-year-old member of the Osaka-based Nakajima-gumi, a second-tier gang of the Yamaguchi-gumi. No reason for the non-indictment was given.

Tsurumi is believed to have been a member of a fraud ring headed by Yukiharu Fujii, a 56-year-old executive in the same gang. In addition to Tsurumi and Fujii, police arrested five other persons in the case.

Shingo Tsurumi
Shingo Tsurumi of the Yamaguchi-gumi (Twitter)

The ring is believed to have swindled at least 85 persons nationwide out of around 100 million yen between October, 2017 and the following May.

The case that led to the arrest of Tsurumi and the other suspects took place last February. A man aged in his 70s who was told over the telephone by a person posing a bank employee that he was eligible for a medical expense refund in February of last year. The suspects later pulled 1.5 million yen from an account belonging to the man via an ATM machine.