From Asia Times, December 4:
Economic yakuza, some of Japan’s best entrepreneurs, have the know-how to spot, even create, investment chances
This is the second of a five-part series on the yakuza’s still wide reach in Japan. Part one is here.
Japan’s organized crime often works hand-in-glove with the pedigreed elite and other “yakuza-minded” businessmen and individuals, including lawyers and accountants. These kyoseisha – cooperative entities – are not yakuza themselves, but are willing to assist and are paid well for their services. In some cases, the connections are unwitting, but in most cases, they are knowing and intentional.
In 2009, Lehman Brothers Japan (LBJ) agreed to lend around US$350 million to a Japanese company to fund the refurbishment of hospitals and old-folks homes – a laudable and potentially profitable venture given Japan’s aging society. The borrower company and its representatives appeared legitimate and had several pedigreed advisors working with them.
LBJ even hired a well-known private investigative firm to vet the parties, and its own lawyers reviewed the deal. But, when the time came, repayment was not forthcoming. The money was never recovered.
This was a yakuza operation – reportedly done with “inside help” from at least one elite banker. All in all, not a bad day’s work: US$350 million – and tax-free. The deal itself and the main counterpart company in particular had all the earmarks of a yakuza scheme and should have been easily detected.
The yakuza take was actually considerably more than US$350 million as other western firms got in on the “sure-thing” deal and handed over another US$150 million or so – for a total of around US$500 million that the yakuza made off with.
Interestingly, the platforms that yakuza use for their financial and other business activities (both legal and illegal) are often legitimate or legitimate-seeming. These include licensed securities and financial companies and a wide range of listed companies. These companies are sometimes owned outright by the yakuza, sometimes under strong influence or, as is often the case, a small number of key executives are just willingly cooperating....
....MUCH MORE
Previously on the Japanese gangsters:
Japan's New Anti-organized Crime Law Playing Havoc With Golf, Pizza Industries
..."We have to improve our image," said Masatoshi Kumagai, one of the yakuza bosses. Yakuza are on decline, he said, and... 'We Have To Evolve Our Business Model' ...
Japanese Mafia Steps Up With Disaster Aid
The writer, Jake Adelstein, is one crazy mo-fo.
He is the pre-eminent Tokyo police-beat reporter writing in English, specializing in vice and organized crime.
He was also the first American to work for a Japanese newspaper as a Japanese language reporter.
His reporting of the UCLA organ transplant scam (because of their tattoos Yakuza often have kidney and especially liver problems) garnered him a few death threats and from time to time his sources decide to beat him to a pulp.
