Tokyo police arrested Shigeru Sugiura, a top-ranking member of Aum Shinrikyo, and two other cult figures Thursday for allegedly sending group members to temporarily work at companies without a government license.
Sugiura, 46, is one of the cult's five top members, according to police. The other two are Tsuyoshi Sakaguchi, 49, a former president of a computer software development company with links to Aum, and Tatsuya Ueda, 40, who was in charge of the cult's accounting.
Police also served fresh warrants on four others, including former senior Aum member Noboru Akiyama, 32, later in the day.
The Employment Security Law requires businesses that supply temporary workers to other organizations to obtain a license from the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
Last month, police raided 22 places and arrested several members of the cult, which renamed itself Aleph in 2000, on suspicion of violating the law.
The three arrested Thursday are suspected of having dispatched several Aum members who did computer work to companies that included a software development firm in Tokyo.
Sugiura and others are suspected of sending dozens of cultists to private firms in Tokyo without a license from 2001 through last January.
The companies are believed to have paid wages totaling several hundred million yen.
Police were looking into the possibility that part of the income might have been used for Aum's operating funds.
Sugiura is the second of the cult's five leaders to be arrested. Naruhito Noda, 38, is currently on trial on charges of violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law.