TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have busted a group running a horse racing prognostication service that was used to defraud multiple customers, reports TV Asahi (Apr. 19).
Makoto Kimura, 37, Shin Moriyama, 23, and three other members of the group, are alleged to have attempted to swindle a man from Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture out of approximately two million yen by falsely promising on the telephone that he would receive 10 million following an upcoming race.
The operation was run out of an apartment in Itabashi Ward. All five suspects, who have been charged with fraud, deny the charges.
Police suspect that the group swindled approximately 20 people nationwide out of at least 50 million yen using similar means.