6 arrested over illegal receipt of money from U.S. in laundering case+

TOKYO, Sept. 2 Kyodo -
Six people have been arrested in a suspected money laundering case involving
illegally receiving a total of about 570 million yen wired from a U.S. bank to
Japan by disguising proceeds of crime as legitimate income, Japanese police
said Thursday.
The suspects are Nyeche Obeneme, a 36-year-old company executive with Nigerian
citizenship in Okegawa, Saitama Prefecture, two other Nigerian men, a Ghanaian
man and a Japanese man and woman.
The case is believed to be part of roughly 2.8 billion yen wired to seven
countries, such as Japan, South Korea, China and Australia, from a Citibank
account in New York in the name of the National Bank of Ethiopia in the autumn
of 2008, investigative sources said.
The billions of yen were wired based on fake wire transfer documents sent to
the U.S. bank. The Federal Bureau of Investigation asked Japan's National
Police Agency in October 2008 to also investigate the case in Japan.
Most of the approximately 570 million yen sent to Japan has already been
withdrawn, and it is unclear what has become of the money, according to the
sources.
Some of the suspects have said they allowed their bank accounts to be used for
receiving remittances and got commissions ranging from 3 million to 7 million
yen, the police said.
The six allegedly received the money wired from Citibank in New York to a
Japanese bank around October 2008 by telling bank staff that the money was
payment for exported construction machinery, despite knowing it was proceeds of
crime.
A total of 770 million yen believed to be linked to the case has been wired to
Japanese bank accounts, and the police are looking for other recipients of the
money, the police added.
The six are accused of violating a law aimed at punishing organized crime and
controlling criminal proceeds.
Three Nigerians have been arrested in South Korea on suspicion of trying to
withdraw money in connection with the case. A Nigerian man has also been
arrested in the United States for allegedly sending fake wire transfer
documents to Citibank.
==Kyodo
2010-09-02 22:58:39