TOKYO (TR) – Prosecutors have announced the non-prosecution of two members of a criminal syndicated who were suspected of using a vacant apartment to carry out fraud, reports Fuji News Network (Jan. 26).
In July of 2024, Masahiro Yamashita, a 44-year-old leader within the Sumiyoshi-kai, and fellow gangster Hironobu Iwakiri, 35, were suspected of working together on the telephone to deceive a man in his 60s living in Shizuoka Prefecture out of 3 million yen in cash.
The pair then had him send the money to a vacant apartment in Nerima Ward. Afterward, they scheduled a viewing of the apartment through a fellow real estate company owner and had someone collect the cash.
On Monday, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office decided not to indict the two gangsters.
The scam is referred to as tokushu sagi, meaning specialized fraud. Perpetrators of this crime target a victim over the telephone and impersonate an authority figure or relative to defraud money from them.
Police were investigating the possibility that Yamashita and his associate may have been involved in around 80 cases of this type of fraud using similar methods, resulting in losses of approximately 1.1 billion yen.
