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Korean car dealer says men held with ¥700 million not connected to heist at bank

The four Korean men held for attempting to move some 700 million yen in cash out of Japan was said to be moving a deposit for sports cars by a Japanese man in Tokyo (TBS News)
The president of a car dealer says four Korean men held for attempting to move some 700 million yen in cash out of Japan were moving a deposit from a man in Tokyo for sports cars (TBS News)

FUKUOKA (TR) – The president of a car dealer in South Korea said the four Korean men apprehended at Fukuoka Airport on Thursday with 700 million yen in cash are not related to an earlier robbery.

The 42-year-old president, based in Seoul, told the Asahi Shimbun (Apr. 21) that the money was a deposit from a Japanese man in Tokyo for the purchase of two Ferrari sports cars, and that he had ordered the men to bring the deposit to Hong Kong.

The president said cash was the preferred means of making the deposit. “Bank transfers and such would make it harder to return the money if the deal were to not go through,” the president said.

At around 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, police apprehended the four men at Fukuoka Airport after an X-ray machine revealed approximately 700 million yen in cash in their possession. They were charged with violating the Customs Law.

About six hours before, two persons sprayed a 29-year-old man with tear gas in front of a branch of Mizuho Bank in the Tenjin area of Chuo Ward before snatching 384 million yen in cash.

Fukuoka Prefectural Police are questioning the president and the man in Tokyo who put down the deposit for the luxury cars.

“I’ve had money physically carried a number of times the same way in the past, but I never thought I’d get into trouble with the Japanese law,” the president said.