Japanese Man Arrested over Cambodia-Based Fraud Ring

Tokyo, June 16 (Jiji Press)--Japanese police Tuesday arrested a 38-year-old Japanese man on suspicion of leading a special fraud group based in Cambodia while living in Thailand.

The suspect, Yusuke Sasaki, was arrested by the prefectural police of Aichi, central Japan, after being deported from Thailand the same day, where he had been detained by local police.

Sasaki is believed to have been a leader of a fraud group that had many Japanese members who were detained in May last year. It was one of several fraud groups based in the northwestern Cambodian town of Poipet.

The prefectural police estimated financial losses from frauds by the group allegedly led by Sasaki at some 1.4 billion yen.

Sasaki is suspected of conspiring with other Japanese perpetrators to make phone calls from Cambodia to a female resident in her 30s in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, eastern Japan, in February last year and defrauding her of a total of 31.4 million yen in cash.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]