Osaka Police Arrest Japanese Linked to Fraud Group in Myanmar

Osaka, March 25 (Jiji Press)--Japanese police Tuesday arrested a 29-year-old Japanese man who had been detained in Thailand for allegedly cheating a Japanese high school student into committing fraud from Myanmar.

The suspect, Tomu Fujinuma, was arrested by the Osaka prefectural police for allegedly taking an acquaintance in his 20s from a street of the western city of Osaka into a vehicle, where the victim was assaulted and confined.

After the incident, which occurred Aug. 20, 2024, Fujinuma fled Japan.

According to Thai police and other sources, Fujinuma was held at an airport in Thailand's Bangkok on Feb. 13 this year for his alleged involvement in managing a fraud scheme in Myanmar.

Fujinuma is believed to have been involved in a fraud group targeting Japanese nationals that was operating from a base of a Chinese-affiliated crime group near Myawaddy, eastern Myanmar. He allegedly forced the high school student from the northeastern Japan prefecture of Miyagi, whom he met in an online gaming community, to commit fraud.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]