Eight people, including the president of a company that had previously caused financial problems in orthodontics, were arrested for selling unregistered corporate bonds with annual interest rates as high as 20 percent. The two female suspects alone are believed to have collected as much as 4.6 billion yen.
The Granshield has also had financial problems with orthodontic monitors. The company was supposed to offer “practically free” teeth straightening if you paid nearly 2 million yen upfront, but treatment and refunds have been suspended.
The arrest wasn’t for that, but for breaching the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act in relation to corporate bonds. Eight people were arrested for collecting 8 billion yen from around 1,300 investors by claiming high annual interest rates of around 20 percent.
Competing to sell bonds
The women were rivals in sales, competing to sell corporate bonds. The suspect Keiko Satake (35) is believed to have collected approximately 1,964 million yen, while the suspect Hiromi Akimoto (38) collected approximately 2,650 million yen.
How did they collect the money?
How did the two women suspects collect the huge amount of money?
Former employee of the company: “I think they were good at sugar dating, I mean, I heard they both did hostesses or something in their early twenties.”
Many male employees were attracted to Satake, and supported her to help conclude contracts.
According to a former employee of the company, the two women were firmly bonded to the suspect Nakamura, saying that they went to sales with president Nakamura and they were getting contracts from various business owners and wealthy people. Making a lot of money was justice, and The Granshield was that kind of company. Both were outstanding in the strength of their belief that president Nakamura is a god, and I think this was directly reflected in their sales results.
The suspect Akimoto, had been using the family name “Watanabe” until just before her arrest. The victims cannot hide their anger. A victim said “I think she changed her surname because she was afraid of being arrested and having her name published.”
Akimoto’s mother said to press: “My daughter divorced her husband and changed her surname to my ex-husband’s about six months ago. I don’t know why, but she told me she wants to work hard under her new surname.”
In some cases, orthodontic customers are induced to buy bonds
Eight people are alleged to have collected a huge sum of 8 billion yen in total, claiming high dividends of as much as 20% annual interest. In some cases, customers who had started orthodontic treatment were induced to purchase bonds.
A former employee said: “Some people buy bonds for millions or tens of millions of yen per unit, so the customers are rather wealthy people. As for orthodontics, we generally recommended it to businessmen and young women. The contracts for both were fulfilled properly at first, so everyone trusted us and signed up in a way that they said “I’d like to try both The Gransheild’s products.”
Victims who have been caught up in both tell these stories.
A woman in her 30s who bought dental braces and a bond worth 3 million yen said that “I was told that if any part of it went wrong, I would get my money back.”
Another woman in her 30’s who bought dental braces and a bond worth 2 million yen said that “You can never lose money,” she regrets that this was explained to her.
On the day the transfer was due, there was no interest payment and a victim became suspicious when she visited the company’s headquarters in person: “It was completely empty, I was frozen in place.”
After the allegations were discovered, the employees disappeared.
