EXCLUSIVE: Judicial Scrivener Arrested over Property Scam in Osaka

(The first sentence in the fourth paragraph should have read, “…forged name seal…,” instead of as sent. A substitute story follows.) EXCLUSIVE: Judicial Scrivener Arrested over Property Scam in Osaka Osaka, Jan. 15 (Jiji Press)–Japanese police have arrested two men, including a judicial scrivener, on suspicion of fraudulently conducting real estate ownership transfer registration without the legitimate owner’s consent, Jiji Press has learned. Arrested by the police department of Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, were the 34-year-old judicial scrivener, Ryohei Matsumoto, and the former leader of a now-defunct electrical engineering company in the central prefecture of Mie. The police suspect that the two are members of a group of “jimenshi” real estate scammers. According to the police, the suspects submitted a forged name seal registration certificate and other false documents related to an 800-square-meter plot of land and two houses on the site to the Osaka Legal Affairs Bureau in January last year. The documents falsely stated that the legitimate male owner of the real estate sold the properties in Kita Ward in the city of Osaka, the capital of the prefecture, to the electrical engineering company, resulting in an unauthorized registration of ownership transfer. The owner filed a civil lawsuit with Osaka District Court for the cancellation of the registration after becoming aware of the fraud around March last year. The court ruled in his favor in June. Trial records and other materials show that Matsumoto also submitted to the legal affairs bureau a document certifying that an identify check was conducted on the property owner. Investigators believe, however, that Matsumoto conducted the check with an impersonator using forged driver’s license, not with the legitimate owner. According to the Osaka judicial scriveners association, Matsumoto was registered with the association in May 2018. He was slapped with a four-month suspension order in August last year for failing to process an inheritance registration application, among other misconduct. In Japan, judicial scriveners are authorized to handle as their exclusive duties registration procedures related to real estate transactions, inheritance and the establishment of corporations on behalf of clients. A judicial scrivener in Osaka Prefecture said that the current rules require only one photo ID for identity checks and that screenings by the legal affairs bureau are somewhat lax, calling for stricter measures such as mandating on-the-spot checks of the residences of the property owners. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]