A former member of the Honohana Sanpogyo foot-reading cult on Friday admitted during the first session of her trial that she conspired with cult leader Hogen Fukunaga, 55, to defraud two women of nearly 4 million yen.
Appearing before the Tokyo District Court, Michiko Ichinose, 37, of Urawa, Saitama Prefecture, told the session that she swindled 3.94 million yen in 1996 and 1997 in conspiracy with Fukunaga and other cult members.
Prosecutors said in their opening statement that the defendant swindled 1.69 million yen from one of the women by telling her that her child would commit suicide unless she attended an August 1996 Honohana Sanpogyo seminar, which cost 2.25 million yen.