Japan Press Weekly

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2013 June 19 - 25 [SCANDAL]

DPJ Kaieda promoted fraudulent business firm

Democratic Party of Japan President Kaieda Banri, when he was an economic critic, enthusiastically promoted the Agura Bokujo cattle firm whose managers were arrested on June 18 for investment fraud.

They fraudulently collected 420 billion yen from more than 70,000 people. Kaieda should be held partially accountable.

In February this year, 30 ex-investors sued Kaieda, demanding a total of 600 million yen in damages caused by his enthusiastic recommendation.

Agura Bokujo was founded in 1981 and operated a “Wagyu beef owner system”. In this scheme, investors sign with Agura firm a contract to breed cows and receive a part of the profits earned by the sales of the calves that the cows gave birth to. At the end of contract terms, the firm buys the cows back from the investors.

The police said that the firm kept collecting money from investors even after April 2011 when it realized that it was essentially bankrupt. However, in May 2011, the company started to offer a new investment plan with a charitable option to victims of the 3.11 earthquake and tsunami. Agura promoted the plan by saying that the firm will donate a part of the profit to the sufferers and ended up collecting 900 million yen.

Agura in 2008 paid 300,000 yen for tickets of political fund-raising parties hosted by Your Party leader Watanabe Yoshimi.