Former Luxury Watch Fraud Associate Tetsuya Morita Targeted as Poster Boy in Farewell to the Light of Youth Exposé!
A total of 1.8 billion yen in luxury watches have not been returned. ...... The former representative wanted in the "Tokematch" case was a classmate of Morita's in junior high school! He had a talk with an economic magazine and praised it as a "good business.
“Just because my classmate got wanted doesn’t mean anything to me. I mean, I have nothing to do with it.”
With a hearty laugh and a sharp retort, he opens his mouth wide. But his usual vigor isn’t there. And for good reason—his classmate, whom they used to encourage each other, has become a wanted criminal.
On March 5th, the Metropolitan Police Department obtained an arrest warrant for Keizai Fukuhara (42), the former president of the luxury watch sharing service “Tokematch,” and put out a nationwide wanted notice.
“Tokematch is a matching service that connects owners of luxury watches like Rolex with customers who want to borrow them, allowing the owners to receive a monthly deposit fee for their watches.
With the dissolution of the company operating the service, it was stated that the watches held in deposit would be returned to the owners within six months. However, there have been numerous cases where watches were not returned. Fukuhara is suspected of embezzling business funds by selling a Rolex he received from a customer for 650,000 yen in January of this year.” (National newspaper social affairs reporter)
Fukuhara left for Dubai in late January. As of the end of February, at least 860 watches worth a total of 1.8 billion yen have not been returned. While the incident has gained attention with victims forming an association on social media, there is someone who unexpectedly got caught in the crossfire.
“It’s Tetsuya Morita (42), of the comedy duo ‘Saraba Seishun no Hikari.’ Actually, Morita and Fukuhara were classmates in junior high school. They were childhood friends who lived in the same apartment complex, and in ’22, they even had a conversation in a magazine.” (Same source)
The conversation between the two took place in the corporate magazine “Qualitas” (December 27, ’22 issue). During the conversation, Morita warmed up his old friendship with Fukuhara, praising the “Tokematch” service, saying, “You came up with a good business idea,” and also complimented Fukuhara’s personality, saying, “He’s a good person.” Fukuhara talked about business theories such as the importance of information dissemination and expressed his dream of building his own company building.
About a year and three months have passed since that conversation. Even after Fukuhara’s arrest warrant was issued, Morita’s side has not commented on the incident. How does Morita himself feel about the fact that his former classmate became a wanted criminal, that he had a conversation with this classmate, and played a role similar to a “poster child” for the “Tokematch” business? In early March, the magazine directly confronted Morita in front of a convenience store in Tokyo.
We’d like to ask you about Fukuhara from Tokematch.
“Yes, yes.”
You had a conversation in a magazine, but have you talked to him (after the incident)?
“No, I haven’t.”
He’s been wanted this time.
“So it seems.”
In the conversation (with Fukuhara), weren’t you also used as a promotional tool?
“No, I don’t know. Because I just did that conversation for the magazine.”
Some people who read the conversation between you two might have trusted Tokematch and invested in it.
“Huh? Are you saying I’m involved in fraud? That’s not true! No, I don’t know. Don’t tell me that. Tell the people at the magazine (where the conversation was published)! I was asked to have the conversation by the magazine. Yes. We’re just doing our job.”
What about your statement in the conversation that Fukuhara is “a good person”?
“Whether he’s a good person or not, I don’t remember. We weren’t that close. It’s nothing. He’s a president now. I’m also a president, so let’s both do our best. That’s all it was.”
We’d like to hear your opinion as we’re covering the incident.
“To be honest, not really. Um, they’re coming. (Victims asking) ‘Do something’ on Twitter (now X). Well, I can’t do anything. I’m sorry.”
What about Fukuhara again?
“I think he’s doing something stupid. Normally, it’s like his style of comedy, and I think it’s better to joke around. But honestly, since there are victims, I can’t do anything.”
Fukuhara, who embezzled while using his classmate, who became popular in the entertainment industry, continues to be on the run.
From the March 29, 2024 issue of “FRIDAY
PHOTO： Sota Shima
