The former chairman of Japan Life Co., a now-bankrupt company, was arrested Friday along with 13 others on suspicion of running a "rental owner" investment scam involving clothing, jewelry and other goods it claimed had health benefits, police said.
Police suspect the company, which went under in March 2018 with debts of about ¥240 billion ($2.3 billion), fraudulently collected a total of ¥210 billion from about 10,000 victims in 44 of Japan's 47 prefectures.
Under the scheme, the company entered into contracts promising to pay purchasers of the products a 6 percent annual rental fee if they lent the items to others, investigative sources said. In most cases, purchased products were not physically provided to the buyers.