On December 29, Takao Oyama, 48, was arrested in Macau for allegedly defrauding investors out of roughly 300 million yen in an investment scheme related to a water supply and mining venture.
Oyama, known as the “don” of the ring, utilized the services of the Kanto Rengo bosozoku motorcycle gang, which had many of its members recently arrested on murder charges for the beating death of a restaurant manager that took place in the Roppongi entertainment area last September.
It turns out, Shukan Jitsuwa (Feb. 21) reports, that those who have been victimized through Oyama’s scheme were not only senior citizens — members of the entertainment industry in Tokyo’s swank Ginza district were also targets.
“There are two other key persons besides Oyama,” says an entertainment industry insider. “A former organized crime member, Tatsuro Kikutsugi, ex-husband of a former idol Risa Honda, who was arrested in December of 2011, has connections with the vocalist of a popular group and a former baseball player who is now a television personally. He boasted about giving the vocalist all the money he needed to buy the racing horse he owns.”
Another key person is a professional music manager and is on run overseas at the time the warrant was issued.
“He is a former member of Kanto Rengo and came into the spotlight as a result of being the managing director of the company that had a management contract with Tetsuya Komuro, who himself was arrested for a scam worth 500 million yen,” says a reporter for an evening paper. “In this case, elderly investors paid out 100,000 yen each for a stake in a water resources and gold mining project.”
Kanto Rengo members then withdrew the deposited money.
“Right now,” continues the reporter, “the interpretation is that the money used to conclude the contract with Komuro was the result of dirty transactions.”
They also went after those working in the entertainment industry in Ginza.
“After creating about thirty paper companies, they sought out victims interested in becoming managing directors of those entities at a rate of 200,000 yen each,” says an individual affiliated with the Ginza club scene. “There is even a club staff member who borrowed 100 million yen and has gone missing since he cannot pay the money back.” (A.T.)
Source: “Ginza kurabu jugyoin mo kamo ni shita, furikome sagi shudan don no geinojin jinmyaku to damashi teguchi,” Shukan Jitsuwa (Feb. 21, page 51)