TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested eight male and female suspects over the alleged sale of nearly 40 kilograms of counterfeit gold bars earlier this year, reports the Mainichi Shimbun (Nov. 14).
Between March and April, Chinese national Yang Xiaodong, a 39-year-old resident of Shibuya Ward, and seven others are accused of conspiring with an unknown individual to sell 37 kilograms of counterfeit gold bars at two stores of a precious metals purchasing company in Chiyoda Ward.
The suspects presented product details and retail transaction confirmations purporting to be genuine in defrauding the victims out of a total of 600 million yen.
Police have not revealed whether the suspects admit to charges of fraud, forgery and the fraudulent use of a private document with a seal.
Money laundering
According to police, gold bars are generally engraved with the precious metals manufacturer’s mark and serial number to distinguish them from counterfeits. Without these marks, their value drops and in some cases they may not be purchased.
Yang and his accomplices are believed to have smuggled many of the gold bars. They contacted multiple purchasing companies posing as trading companies and precious metals dealers.
The suspects are believed to have sold 9.5 billion yen worth of gold bars over a four-month period, adding on the consumption tax that would be levied by customs on legitimate imports. If all of the gold was smuggled, they would have made a profit of 860 million yen.
The majority of their sales were converted into cryptocurrency (crypto assets). Tokyo police believe the suspects were engaging in money laundering.
As gold prices have soared, there have been a series of specialized fraud cases in which perpetrators posing as police officers have defrauded gold bars, with losses in Tokyo reaching 260 million yen between January and September.
During their investigation, Tokyo police noticed that gold bars with counterfeit markings were in circulation and was investigating their source. It is possible that the gold bars sold by Yang and his accomplices were also stolen goods.
