OSAKA -- Police arrested the president of an investment-advice company and five of its employees Friday on suspicion of swindling 323 mainly elderly people out of 1.3 billion yen in cash and stocks.
Takeshi Akamatsu, 60, president of Kokusai Toshi Keizai Kenkyusho (International Investment and Economic Research) and his employees are suspected of carrying out the fraud in 45 prefectures between August 1998 and May this year.
Every prefecture except Yamanashi and Kagoshima had at least one victim of the fraud, police said.
Akamatsu's company, based in Osaka's Chuo Ward, was searched in June on suspicion of illegally mediating stock transactions. Investigators discovered that Akamatsu and his five employees had diverted money received from customers as payment for stocks, police said.
Akamatsu's company hired former brokerage employees and urged elderly customers to invest in stocks with promises of, "You will never lose because the principal is guaranteed," or "You can buy soaring information technology stocks at the purchase price."
Police said Akamatsu and the others forged documents to make it appear as if stocks had been actually purchased, then gave evasive answers such as "You will suffer a loss if you want your money back" when customers requested refunds.
One elderly person lost tens of millions of yen set aside for his retirement, the police said.