A 38-year-old 100 Million Yen Scammer Finally Caught by the Police!

I don’t remember the past.

The man is said to have said this in response to police questioning.

On June 17, the Arakawa Police Station of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department announced the arrest of Yosuke Sakurai, 38, of unknown address and occupation, for defrauding a woman in her 60s living in the same ward out of a sum of 46 million yen. Sakurai defrauded the mother of a high school friend.

After graduating from college, Sakurai began working for a major futures commodities trading company. In a short time, he was promoted to a managerial position. However, he resigned due to a series of problems with customers. He established his own investment company and solicited investments through social networking services. The amount of money raised was as much as 5 billion yen from about 400 people.

It seems that he was doing quite well. He was seen playing at clubs in Kabukicho and Roppongi in Shinjuku in Tokyo until dawn, as he did every night. However, problems frequently occurred at the investment company as well, such as the delay in dividend payments. After a string of accusations from victims, he was arrested in November 2020 for violating the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law.

His son is also doing it and making a lot of money.

The deception that led to his arrest this time was extremely despicable.

A woman in her 60s must have trusted Sakurai because he was a classmate of her son’s from high school. Sakurai apparently swindled the woman 14 times between May 2016 and July 2017. He told the woman that he was a professional futures trader, and lured her to the market as follows: “Your son is also in this business.” He told her, “Your son is also doing it and making a lot of money. If you invest your money, you will surely make a profit.”

Sakurai is known to have committed at least four other crimes using similar tactics. The total amount he defrauded was more than 100 million yen.

How can we prevent fraud like Sakurai from making a profit? Former Kanagawa Prefectural Police detective and crime journalist Taihei Ogawa tells us.

There is no such thing as an easy way to make a lot of money. First of all, you should be skeptical. If there really was a way to make money, people would not simply tell others about it. The purpose of people who offer you a profitable scheme is to scam you. Even if it is an acquaintance or a family member.

Scammers usually call themselves “investment experts” or “former top salesmen,” and use jargon to persuade you. If you really want to invest, one way is to check with a financial instruments exchange to see if the person you are talking to is really qualified to invest. In most cases, they are not authorized to do so. Even if a case is made and the scammer is arrested, please keep in mind that the money you have invested will not be returned. The scammers will have spent all of their money and will have little or no money at their disposal.

The police are investigating Sakurai to see if he has any other crimes.