Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation’s Customer Service Center took a shocking action after being defrauded of 500 million yen by the “President of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation Group”.
I can get in through the back door.”
Mr. A, a man who manages several restaurants in Tokyo and elsewhere, was approached by a friend who told him that he had an operational quota that he could only show to special customers. The man who appeared at the coffee shop in Tokyo was Mr. X, a former branch manager of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. The following is the second part of the story.
Dividends were paid regularly, but often fell short of the target of 3%. When asked about the status of his investments, he explained based on a homemade paper with such information as “Personal Foreign Currency Time Deposit Simulation (in Euros).
He would contact me from time to time after that and recommend additional investments, and when I could afford it, I took the cash to Mr. X.” Every time we met, he told me all sorts of stories. He told me that Mr. Shigeru Ishiba (68) was his junior at Sakura Bank and that he used to hand out tissues in front of the station with Mr. Ishiba when he was young.
After Mr. X was appointed president of SMBC Green Service in 2012, he continued to offer to make additional investments, to which Ms. A responded.
Mr. X said, ‘I can enter through the back door, so I’m going straight to the head office to process the deposit.
After Mr. X moved from Green Service to become an auditor of a listed company in 2003, he continued to deal with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation through payment receipts. The amount of money Mr. X invested with Mr. A had ballooned to nearly ¥500 million.
It was only last summer that Ms. A, who had fully trusted Mr. X, noticed something unusual. He asked Mr. X to withdraw the money he had invested, because his mother was considering entering a nursing home and he would need a large amount of cash.
Mr. X gave her a number of reasons, such as ‘the counter has changed’ or ‘the person in charge has passed away, so we cannot return the money immediately. Feeling uncomfortable, he asked an acquaintance familiar with financial matters to take a look at the money transfer receipt and was told, ‘The shape and position of the seal used is not right. He pointed out that ‘the shape and position of the seal used were not correct, and that it might have been forged.
In fact, the bank seal that was stamped was used to certify that the document was official, not for use on the receipt, and was not used as an allotment seal.
He added, “I realized for the first time that I had been deceived when I found that the name of the branch was not written on the money transfer receipt and that the quality of the paper on the receipt was different from the usual one. Last September, I contacted the Customer Service Center of SMBC, but was told at the door, ‘We don’t know about people who have resigned. Unsatisfied, I called the bank again, but this time I was sent to the deposit section, which eventually told me to ‘go to the police.
Mr. A pressed Mr. X to repay the money. Mr. X admitted the fraud and signed a written pledge to Mr. A that he would repay 480 million yen by 2009. However, Ms. A, unable to shake her sense of distrust, visited Mr. X in October of last year with an acquaintance and demanded another explanation for repayment. The author obtained audio data recording of the entire process.
I left my title to my home with a…
Acquaintance “This is a scam, isn’t it?”
Mr. X “…… yes”
Acquaintance “The seal, it’s a forgery, right?”
Mr. X “…… well”
Acquaintance “Isn’t forgery terrible?”
Mr. X : “That’s exactly right. I don’t have any words to reply.
Acquaintance “How did you make the documents?”
Mr. X : “I did it inside.
Acquaintance “Did you really operate it?”
Mr. X “…………”
Acquaintance “What did you use the 500 million for?”
Mr. X “It was to pay off my personal past debts. It is all my fault.”
Acquaintance: “Other than Mr. A, are there any other people like this?”
Mr. X : “From my friends as well.
Acquaintance “Are there some of them?”
Mr. X: “Yes.”
In order to compensate for the damage, Mr. X left the title to his house with Mr. A and also signed a memorandum of understanding that he would deliver the house after the mortgage was erased by December of last year. However, this promise was never kept.
In mid-January, I approached Mr. X as he came out of his house to confirm the facts, but he only blurted out, “There is a misunderstanding,” and did not respond to my questions. I also applied for an interview in writing and informed his representative to that effect, but received no response by the deadline.
We wondered what he thought about the responsibility for the trouble caused by a person who served as director and president of a wholly owned subsidiary using the name and equipment of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. The public relations department of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group answered the following in an interview with this magazine.
The SMFG’s Corporate Communications Department responded to this question in an interview with this magazine: “The Bank’s internal rules, including its employment regulations, prohibit the private collection of funds from customers, business partners, and others, and the offering of personal investment proposals to such customers. (Omitted) We are not aware of the facts of this matter, and have not confirmed or investigated the matter to date. We are aware of the situation through this interview, and we intend to investigate to confirm the facts. (Omitted) At this point, we have not been able to confirm any record of Mr. A, the reporting party, contacting our bank with such an offer of damage.
Mr. A is now preparing to file a damage report with the police in order to clarify the actual situation.
Mr. A is now preparing to file a damage report with the police in order to clarify the actual damage. We intend to fight this until the very end.
Another dark side of the financial industry has come to light.
From the February 13, 2026 issue of FRIDAY
Interview and text by： Hironori Jinno (Nonfiction writer)