8 Arrested over Gathering Investments for Nonexistent Firm

Tokyo, Feb. 9 (Jiji Press)--Tokyo police have arrested the president of an investment consulting firm and seven others for allegedly collecting investments for a nonexistent company by touting high returns of 4 pct per month.

Kota Morino, the 38-year-old head of FRich Quest, based in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward, and others were arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department's life and economy division on suspicion of fraud. The division has not disclosed whether the eight have admitted to the allegations.

The suspects allegedly took a total of 56.8 million yen from four people in their 20s to 50s around between October 2021 and January 2022 by giving them false investment offers.

FRich Quest used encrypted messaging app Signal to communicate with customers and employees. The MPD believes that the company collected some 20 billion yen from around 3,300 people between March 2016 and January 2022.

According to the police, FRich Quest solicited clients through social media, saying that they could earn dividends worth 4 pct of their investments per month by investing in a company in the Seychelles, an island nation in the Indian Ocean. It said that investors could "earn money easily."

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]