
Is it hidden in exchange for the crypto asset "Tether"? At least 4 billion yen involved?
AI-generated summary
There have been a number of cases in which criminal proceeds of special fraud groups are laundered using crypto assets.
On the 29th, Miyazaki Prefectural Police arrested three men, including corporate executives Daiki Shimizu (26) from Aobadai, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, and his father Hideaki (58) from Shin-Ogawa-cho, Shinjuku-ku, on suspicion of laundering the proceeds of crimes such as special fraud into crypto assets, in violation of the Act on Punishment of Organized Crimes (concealment of criminal proceeds). It has not been made clear whether he approves or disapproves.
Suspected fraud, key man arrested; instructions given to multiple groups?
The other suspect arrested was Masahiko Kakuo (39), Tamatsukuri, Narita City, Chiba Prefecture.
According to prefectural police, Daiki and his group are believed to have been involved in money laundering of at least 4 billion yen between October 2025 and April 2026, including by receiving requests from special fraud groups.
The suspect was arrested on suspicion of having a total of approximately 3.4 million yen, including money defrauded by an unnamed special fraud group, transferred to an account controlled by Daiki and others in October last year and February of this year, and concealing it by exchanging it for the crypto asset ``Tether.''

On the 29th, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications filed a criminal complaint with the Toyama Prefectural Police against an employee of Toyama City on suspicion of inflating the population by at least 2,000 people in the 2025 census, and for violating the Statistics Act. Mayor Hirohisa Fujii apologized, but denied that the aim was to maintain 400,000 people.

A former executive of the SBC Shonan Beauty Clinic Group, a major cosmetic medical company, was arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department on suspicion of repeatedly placing orders for fictitious website security measures with an acquaintance's company, causing losses of approximately 13 million yen to the affiliated company.

A knife with blood stains was found near the murder scene of Yuka Tezuka in a private house in Ota City, Gunma Prefecture. Prefectural police have referred the suspect, Miharu Nozomi, who was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder to her eldest son, to the public prosecutor's office, and both weapons are being investigated as possible murder weapons. The suspect stated that he had prepared a knife to kill him.

At around 4:15 a.m. on the 29th, a passenger car and a truck collided head-on at a national highway intersection in Soga, Chuo Ward, Chiba City, resulting in the deaths of three of the four people in the car. The 19-year-old man driving the truck was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and the 57-year-old man driving the truck also had minor injuries. Prefectural police believe that the car crossed into oncoming traffic and collided with the vehicle, and are investigating the exact cause of the accident.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's First Investigative Division arrested Shinobu Ishihara (53), a self-proclaimed real estate agent, on suspicion of providing real estate customer information to an anonymous and mobile criminal group (Tokuryu) and being involved in an attempted robbery. Ishihara had planned to provide the couple's address and family structure to Yasuhiro Nakajima and receive 50% of the money and goods he stole, but the attempt failed due to resistance from the couple. The department has so far arrested a total of seven people involved.

Two Chilean men who were arrested in connection with the theft of four luxury watches (worth a total selling price of approximately 200 million yen) from a watch store in Nakano Broadway, a commercial facility in Nakano Ward, Tokyo, were arrested again on the 28th on suspicion of theft, etc., after stealing watches from a private house in Ota Ward three days before the incident. The two arrived at Haneda Airport from Australia the day before, broke a display case with a hammer at a watch store in Nakano Ward on the 25th, stole four luxury brand watches, and fled, before being arrested in Osaka on the 27th.