The Okinawa Prefectural Police sent on Feb. 17th a report on a 39-year-old foreign man living in Urasoe to the Naha District Public Prosecutors Office on suspicion of an involvement in a money laundering scheme. The man reportedly was taking advantage of the Internet banking system.

According to police officials, the man claims he did not know his actions constituted a fraudulent money transfer.  This is the first disclosed case on Okinawa related to money laundering through the Internet.  Prefectural Police investigators say the man was taking part in the money maundering scheme as a “mule” whose job was to receive and send money overseas through his account.

He is charged on suspicion that he remitted about ¥460,000 yen, which had been sent from a known money laundering group to his account via Internet, to an account in Russia prior to Nov. 2014. After the transaction, the man sent the relevant code numbers necessary to receive the money to the fraudster group.

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