<figure id="attachment_459435" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-459435" style="width: 1601px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="1952f0f1"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/03/f0bb8583ab9a0afcfd249a31bf7af9ab.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-459435" class="wp-caption-text">Inmate Kaminskas arrives at Haneda Airport in Tokyo in January &#8217;19. He was in custody in the Philippines, where he had escaped.</figcaption></figure>
<h3> Where did the 5.5 billion yen disappear to?</h3>
 Forgive me, Mr. Isao Mori. 
 I am Kaminskas, who was made the main suspect in the Sekisui Jinsai case. I believe that Mr. Mori is quite knowledgeable about this case. He published a book entitled &#8220;The Groundworker&#8221; immediately after the incident.
 It was in April 2012 that a letter with such a note was sent to Isao Mori, a nonfiction writer.
 The sender was one of the &#8220;jichishi&#8221; who defrauded one of Japan&#8217;s leading housebuilders out of 5.5 billion yen and became the model for the hit TV drama series, &#8220;Sekisui House Incident,&#8221; which was based on the &#8220;Umikikikan&#8221; inn in Gotanda, Tokyo. Misao Kaminskas, 66, was arrested in January 2007 on charges including fraud and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
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 Kaminskas wrote to Mr. Mori, the author of <a href="https://amzn.to/4tXrOXS" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;Jijiji, a group of dark fraudsters who sell off other people&#8217;s land,&#8221; which</a> was also the basis for the drama &#8220;Jijiji Tachi&#8221; that was distributed on Netflix in July &#8217;24, asking him, &#8220;What do you think of me?
 What do you think of me, Mr. Mori? I will say it clearly. I am innocent.
 Kaminskas is an important character who is said to be the model for Takumi Tsujimoto, the character played by Go Ayano in the drama. How did Mr. Mori read the letter from such a man?
 Kaminskas led the deal with Sekisui House and was present at the preview of Kaikikan. How could he be innocent? I thought it was just a grudge match.
 However, as he read through the letter, his impression began to change.
 Mike Uchida, Yoshio Doi, and Fumiaki Kitada were the ones who actually planned the scam. I thought these three were the main culprits. They are the big names in the landscaper world, as they have been darkly involved in numerous ground-up schemes. Compared to them, I had the impression that Kaminskas was only a supporting player.
 However, at some point, Kaminskas was reported as the ″main culprit″ in the case. I thought that his letter could be the key to understanding the whole picture of the complex and bizarre groundwork group and Sekisui House case.&#8221;
 As if in response to Mori&#8217;s thoughts, Kaminskas stated in his letter
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 I was deceived and manipulated by the groundkeeper group. The property was originally deceived by Yokozawa (pseudonym, real name in the letter) of Emile (Holdings), but Yokozawa of Emile has not been arrested, and no record of his arrest has been made.
 The &#8220;Yokozawa of Emile&#8221; is the man who is said to have introduced Kaminskas to the fraud group. In the letter, Kaminskas claimed that he was approached about the deal by Yokozawa, who was a motozuke (a contractor who looks for buyers for properties at the direct request of the landowner) of Kaikikan.
 He also states that he did not know that the landowner introduced to him by Yokozawa was an impersonator. In other words, he claims that he was deceived by Yokozawa and was only involved in the case.
 Regardless of the veracity of Kaminskas&#8217;s claim, there is no doubt that Yokozawa is a key person in the investigation of the case. Yokozawa, however, was never arrested. A senior police official in charge of the investigation of the case said, &#8220;Yokozawa&#8217;s name was the first one to come up in the investigation.
 I remember that Yokozawa&#8217;s name came up at the beginning of the investigation, but there were many people under investigation in the Sekisui House case, and I got the impression that Yokozawa disappeared in the middle of the investigation. However, there is a subtlety to the question of whether there were no omissions in the investigation. We cannot deny the possibility that Yokozawa was deeply involved in the case.&#8221;
 Yokozawa has also caused a stir in other cases, as he was reported one after another in 2012 as the leader of a group of М&amp;A fraudsters. Yokozawa was the head of an M&amp;A scam group, which was reported in a series of reports in 2012 as the leader of a group of M&amp;A scammers.
 Yokozawa has set up more than 30 M&amp;A deals. Some of the victims have filed complaints with the police. Yokozawa apparently spent tens of millions of dollars a year at cabarets in Mito City, Ibaraki Prefecture, where he was based.
 Was the money obtained from the Sekisui House case the source of his lavish spending? The key person in the case has disappeared.
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Whereabouts of the &quot;5.5 billion yen lost in the darkness&quot; whose testimonies differ from each other"></div>
<h3>Who is telling the truth&#8230; Where is the &#8220;5.5 billion yen that was defrauded&#8221; going?</h3>
 One of the great mysteries remaining in the case is the whereabouts of the 5.5 billion yen that was defrauded. Kaminskas repeatedly complained in his letters.
 The only money I received was 100 million yen as an introduction fee when I signed the (tentative) contract.
 Mori&#8217;s view is negative.
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 It is hard to believe that Kaminskas, the perpetrator of the scam, received less than 2% of the money. This must be a lie.&#8221;
 Kaminskas purchased two tower condominiums around the time Sekisui House signed a tentative sales contract with the impersonating landowner.
 In Mori&#8217;s new book, &#8220;Jidishi vs. Jidishi,&#8221; a person who says he bought those apartments from Kaminskas answers in an interview.
 Koyama (Kaminskas&#8217;s maiden name) was very wealthy at the time. He spent his evenings in Asakusa and lent his young cronies 30 or 50 million yen. He also had six mistresses. At that time, Koyama probably had 700 to 800 million yen in his pocket.
 The story of the other main culprit also directly contradicts Kaminskas. Mori continues.
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 In August 1925, writer Momoko Kawai published a letter from Fumiaki Kitada in the Shukan Post, in which he wrote, &#8220;Koyama had 1 billion yen, Doi and Kitada 1 billion yen, and Mike 300 million yen. I told Kaminskas about it,
 The distribution of money that Kitada is talking about is wrong. I think Doi probably told Kitada a lie. I think the distribution is Doi 2 billion yen, Kitada 1 billion yen, Uchida 300 million yen, and others,&#8221; came the reply.
 The Sekisui House case is a drama-like deceitful game of con artists. The Sekisui House case is now approaching the 10th anniversary of the incident, leaving many mysteries unanswered.
 From the May 24, 2024 issue of FRIDAY
<figure id="attachment_459437" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-459437" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="e881f91f"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/03/742c6982ecd01cc9f3d65cc73b7f5193.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-459437" class="wp-caption-text"> Part of a letter from Kaminskas to Mori from prison. Including Mr. Mori&#8217;s reply, the number of letters reaches 50.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_459438" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-459438" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="aa32a034"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/03/00a36b4a8537cc1c04fbbe10b1b2fb48.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-459438" class="wp-caption-text"> Kaikikan immediately after the groundkeeper fraud case was uncovered. At the time, Sekisui House was not allowed to register the property based on the sales contract.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_459440" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-459440" style="width: 2633px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="e7e2004d"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/03/d66a83befff1ba8ed0b3edd07b0a7e63.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-459440" class="wp-caption-text"> As of 2014, a high-rise condominium tower with 30 floors above ground and 105 meters high stands on the site of the former Kaikikan.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_459441" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-459441" style="width: 1738px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="a82dd9ec"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/03/e44b878eab0ccb7858772d87cc040484.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-459441" class="wp-caption-text"> Isao Mori&#8217;s new book <a href="https://amzn.to/4tXrOXS" target="_blank" rel="noopener">, &#8220;Groundwork vs. Groundwork: Fraudulent Deceptions&#8221;</a> is now on sale. The remaining mysteries of the Sekisui House case.</figcaption></figure>

 Shinji Hasuo (1st photo) Kazuhiko Nakamura (2nd photo) Masayoshi Katayama (4th photo)

 In April 2012, Mr. Kaminskas, who was arrested as the main suspect in the Sekisui House case, sent a letter to Isao Mori, a nonfiction writer. The letter contained the truth of the case from Mr. Kaminskas' point of view. The following is a part of the letter.

The Sekisui House Incident: Shocking Fact Revealed in a Letter from an Inmate Arrested as the Main Criminal

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