TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested the former wife of the mayor of Yamanashi City, Yamanashi Prefecture in the alleged swindle of more than 20 million yen from a man via an investment scam, reports TBS News (June 6).
Between December of 2011 and the following January, Harumi Mochizuki, the 61-year-old director of Sashide Sekizai, allegedly defrauded the man, aged in his 60s and living in Saitama Prefecture, out of 23 million yen by falsely promising to pay out dividends on invested capital. Minetsugu Koshizuka, a 63-year-old former doctor, has also been accused in the case.
On April 25, police raided the office of Sashide Sekizai and the home of Mochizuki for evidence in the case.
According to credit records, Sashide Sekizai was founded in 1999 as a company that manufactured gravestones and performed work at cemeteries. As of 2016, it had accumulated debts of 580 million yen.
Sued in Tokyo court
In December, the Tachikawa branch of the Tokyo District Court ordered Harumi Mochizuki to pay compensation of 42.2 million yen to five plaintiffs, including a man in Tokyo, who sued the suspect over a similar fraud, according to Jiji Press (June 6). The plaintiffs had sought compensation of 230 million yen.
Seiki Mochizuki, the husband of Harumi, was once the director of the company. After being elected to the prefectural assembly, he passed the company’s presidency to Harumi, his then wife. He was first elected mayor of Yamanashi City in 2014. The couple divorced this past February.
