Police Arrest Suspect Over Alleged Foreign Marriage Scam

Friday, 11 July 2008

A marriage consultation center operator accused of fixing up fake marriages between homeless men and South Korean women residing illegally in Japan has been arrested, police said.

Hironaka Akiba, 62, the operator of the marriage consultation center in Tokyo's Sumida-ku, was arrested on suspicion of misrepresentation on the original of an electronic notarized document and offering it for use. Police suspect that between 1988 and November last year he arranged about 300 marriages, raking in about 300 million yen.

Akiba's 50-year-old common-law wife Setsuko Atsuhata, who jointly ran the business, was reported to public prosecutors, accused of conspiring with Akiba. The pair have already been charged over a separate marriage fraud incident.

Investigators accuse the suspects of submitting a false registration of marriage to the Sumida Ward Office, between a 52-year-old acquaintance who worked at a mahjong parlor and a 37-year-old South Korean woman working at an esthetic clinic.

The suspects allegedly participated in volunteer work for homeless people at Ueno Park and asked them to play the part of husbands, promising to take care of their daily well-being. They also allegedly set up a shell company to give the men the proof of employment required when the women applied for residence permits.

The majority of the South Korean women involved were waitresses, who reportedly paid 1.5 million yen each to participate in the fake marriage scheme. Of this, 500,000 yen went to the homeless men, and the remaining 1 million yen went to the suspects. The illicit actions were uncovered in November 2006 after one homeless man involved in a fake marriage approached police.