Hotel group owner, 10 others arrested over alleged fraud+

TOKYO, Feb. 8 Kyodo -
The owner of a resort hotel chain operator and 10 other suspects have been
arrested over an alleged investment fraud case whose size could top 20 billion
yen, police said Tuesday.
A joint investigative team from police departments in Tokyo and Fukui, Shizuoka
and Hyogo prefectures has arrested Masahiro Ohigashi, 59, owner of the Okamoto
Hotel Group and former chairman of Okamoto Hotel Systems, the Tokyo-based hotel
operator.
The suspects allegedly swindled elderly investors out of cash promising them
high returns on resort club memberships from 2005.
They allegedly collected more than 20 billion yen in deposits from about 8,000
investors across Japan for membership in a hot-spring resort club called
Okamoto Club over roughly a five-year period since the club was launched in
2005, the police said.
The police have obtained warrants of arrest for three more associates on
similar suspicions and are hunting for them, they said.
Of the more than 20 billion yen the suspects collected, at least 4 billion yen
was handed to Ohigashi in the form of loans between April 2004 and May 2010,
police sources said.
The police have confirmed that Ohigashi delivered hundreds of millions of yen
out of the amount to gangsters who included a member of Japan's largest
underworld syndicate, the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi, the sources said.
Investigators believe Ohigashi himself was once a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi,
the sources said.
The police arrested the 11 on suspicion of violating the anti-organized crime
law for allegedly pocketing some 300 million yen in proceeds after collecting
an unspecified amount of money from the victims in some 80 investment contracts
from September 2009 to May 2010 as a facility fee for the resort club.
During questioning, Ohigashi denied the allegations, telling investigators he
has never taken part in any organizational fraud, the police said.
The 10 other suspects include Kazuaki Yamawaki, 56, and Hironori Matsunaga, 37,
former presidents of Okamoto Hotel Systems-affiliated resort club operator OMC.
All the remaining eight suspects were former employees of OMC.
Okamoto Hotel Systems based in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, operates a total of 11 hotels
in seven prefectures.
The Okamoto Hotel Group runs 11 hotels in seven prefectures and the
members-only Okamoto Club.
Among the hotels was Atami Okamoto Hotel in the popular seaside hot-spring
resort city of Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo.
The case surfaced after some club members complained to the companies about
unreturned deposits.
In May 2010, the police raided offices of the hotel operator and resort club
operator, as well as related hotels.
The value of the Okamoto Hotel Group's assets was estimated at some 4.5 billion
yen as of the end of September 2009, while the amount of deposits due to be
returned to investors totaled 19 billion yen -- more than quadruple the assets,
they said.
The suspects allegedly promised investors their deposits would be paid back in
full in five years and also that they could make a profit by converting into
cash free point-based coupons to stay at the hotels, the police said.
The 1999 anti-organized crime law is intended to toughen punishment on
organizational crimes by anti-social groups, such as underworld syndicates and
terrorist organizations.
==Kyodo
2011-02-08 23:35:42


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