Japan Wants Laundered Money from Switzerland
Tuesday, November 2, 2004 Posted: 06:33 AM JST
Japanese prosecutors belatedly have begun talks with Switzerland to seek the return of 61 million Swiss francs (about 5.4 billion yen) that Swiss authorities confiscated from a Japanese loan shark leader Kyodo reports today.
The prosecutors face difficulties in their attempt to have the money returned to Japan. Switzerland and Japan have no legal arrangement for repatriation of crime-linked money. If their efforts fail, the 61 million Swiss francs will remain in Switzerland and be used in cantonal and national budgets.
The money was deposited in a Swiss bank account in May last year by Susumu Kajiyama, head of a Japanese loan shark group. He ran a network of 1,000 loan sharks in Japan for the Goryokai group, an affiliate of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest crime syndicate. Japan is prosecuting him for loan sharking and money laundering. In July Kajiyama pleaded guilty to the charges.
Keywords: national_news crime finance society
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