KUMAMOTO (TR) – Kumamoto Prefectural Police have arrested a 57-year-old company executive on suspicion of professional embezzlement after he allegedly siphoned corporate funds to pay a fraudster he met on a dating app, reports Nippon News Network (Oct. 6).
Hiroshi Yamauchi is accused of transferring 29 million yen from a corporate bank account to his personal account in October 2022, during his time serving as the company’s representative director.
The motive behind the alleged theft took a bizarre turn about eight months later, when Yamauchi went to the police to report that he was the victim of a “romance investment scam.”
Yamauchi told authorities he had been pressured to invest by an individual posing as a woman whom he had met on a matchmaking app. In total, he claimed to have been defrauded out of approximately 150 million yen. Investigators believe the 29 million yen embezzled from his company was funneled directly into this fraudulent scheme.
During questioning, Yamauchi denied the allegations, telling police, “I did not commit any act of embezzlement.”
However, investigators revealed that more than 100 million yen is currently missing from the company’s accounts. Police are continuing their investigation into Yamauchi’s suspected involvement in the broader disappearance of the corporate funds.
