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Accompanied by her tax accountant, the well-dressed woman was full of confidence last October when she stood in front of investors to present the company’s financial results. The annual net profit exceeded 600 million yen, she boasted, and through her personal connections with banks overseas, "there was a great opportunity" awaiting the investors.
A month later, the asset management company Allied in Osaka had shut down without notice and the staff vanished without a trace. On June 14, all six executives were arrested on suspicion of violating the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. Toshie Sugimoto, former CEO, was arrested in an Internet cafe with only 20,000 yen in her wallet.
The company had promised high dividends through FX asset management and collected 2 billion yen from 280 clients. But these investors ended up losing their savings to Allied’s pyramid investment scam. So far, the police have learned that over 400 million yen was distributed to the executives as compensation while 300 million yen remains unaccounted for. Only 360 million was used in foreign exchange investment.
One elderly client was stunned to hear from his daughter that Sugimoto, the supposed charismatic FX trader, used to be an AV actress until 2006. “I’m sure it’s a different person,” he still insists. The resemblance between the actress in the video image and Sugimoto cannot be denied, but the allegation seems to have come from one resentful investor who had also become a victim of her scam business.
Osaka police department is continuing the investigation as a fraud case.
© Japan Today
15 Comments
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neganip
History stands testament to the number of such schemes that occur in Japan. Maybe its time to create a consumer protecting rating agency or regulation body that gives out an ISO type certification around the very basics of an investment product.
sharky1
To all those people who lost money, I have a fool proof way for you to recoup your losses. Just log on to our website, enter your credit card information, and then sit back and watch the cash begin to flow.
TokyoGas
Wait... Collect JPY 2bn Less: 0.4bn executive compensation Less: 0.36bn Fx deals Less: 0.3bn unaccounted for Leaves: 0.94bn of what???
Is my abacus on the fritz or did I miss something.
nisegaijin
So what is failed FX trading (all foreign currencies disintegrated last year) or a pyramid scheme?
gaijintraveller
Sounds a bit like what happened in the US. The difference is in her case her company was not bailed out by the government.
gogogo
The Yakazu again, they use a pretty face to get the money then do the runner. They'll never catch the execs, what strikes me is that why is an porno actress qualified to run an investment company? That should have raised a few flags from the investors.
Kronos
Apparently the investors were not watching porn movies. Hence they did not recognize her :-)
scoobydoo
Failed FX trading is what you experience when you first start FX trading, looks pretty simple but is not only hard to do from a trading point of view but also from a mental and emotional point of view. Master it and you could be richer, don't master it and you will join the ranks of the %95 who fail, loose money and never persevere to mastery and only loose money. Sounds like this is more of a scam than FX trading disaster to me.
timorborder
Anyone seen a prospectus for this company? Would have loved to have read the "Message from the CEO" column. Furthermore, I would like to know more about the CEO's "personal connections with banks overseas." I would assume that she is talking about "banks" in terms of financial institutions and not those that help out with issues of in vitro fertilization. Then again, perhaps her "personal connections with banks overseas" was something other than expected. As an artiste, she sold them movies in which she was the star to help out with sperm deposits, and they offered her tips of the FX market. Somewhat unexpected, however, the only plausible interpretation of the facts. (lol)
Lamborghini
Was screwed by men to make money, and now screwing everyone for money.
She should get a job in government. Those bast*rds do nothing but screw the public over for money also.
TokyoGas
Never discount the power of a pretty face to bring in the bucks.
electric2004
An image of 杉本淑枝 can be found at:
blog.goo.ne.jp/tachibanaya_mohei/e/c1dd097cd01d9333bbe8e3b7fede96ba
biglittleman
No matter what your problems may be the Internet cafe seems to be the place most people end up.
biglittleman
I also believe sales on her videos will go up.
chuckers
Good catch, Tokyo Gas.
The Japanese article on Asahi.com states that 940 Million Yen (the unaccounted 0.94Bn) was used to pay dividends as well as finder's fees for introducing new clients.
This rather important tidbit was left out of this English version.