13 Japanese Transferred from Indonesia Arrested for Alleged Fraud

Tokyo, April 16 (Jiji Press)–Japanese police on Thursday arrested 13 Japanese men in their 20s to 50s on suspicion of involvement in a crypto asset fraud scheme after being transferred from Indonesia. The men were suspected of convincing a woman in her 60s in Nara Prefecture, western Japan, to purchase a total of 8 million yen’s worth of the cryptocurrency ethereum on eight occasions between mid-February and early March and transfer the funds to an account managed by them. They allegedly posed as police officers and told her over the phone that she was suspected of committing money laundering. The men are believed to have been involved in several fraud cases in the Kansai western Japan region. They are believed to have operated from a base in Bogor, West Java, near Jakarta, and were detained by local authorities in March. Police uniforms, smartphones and tablet devices were seized from the base. This is the first instance of a base for special fraud involving Japanese individuals being uncovered in Indonesia, according to Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]