Japanese police arrested an alleged associate of Cambodia-based Prince Group which is accused of being one of Asia’s biggest crime organizations that engaged in scamming, extortion, and forced labor. Hu Xiaowei has been arrested in Osaka, Japan, according to a police interview given to Kyodo, Japan’s leading news agency, and shared with OCCRP on Monday.
The U.S., the U.K. and South Korea have sanctioned the Prince Group at the end of last year, while several jurisdictions have frozen assets linked to the group.
The conglomerate is allegedly part of a booming criminal industry in Southeast Asia, which uses “sophisticated schemes, including scams in which people are lured into fake romantic relationships, to defraud victims on an industrial scale,” the U.K. foreign office then said.
The Prince Group has rejected such allegations.
A senior official at Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department confirmed reports published by Asahi Shimbun, another leading Japanese news organisation, of Hu Xiaowei’s recent arrest at a luxury hotel in Japan’s second largest city, under his Cypriot identity, “Hu Shi”.
The latest developments have also been privately confirmed to OCCRP by regional Japanese police and western government sources.
OCCRP has reported extensively on Hu Xiaowei, including unmasking his multiple identities and his extensive portfolio of global assets as well as his recent trips to Japan on a private jet, and the extensive network of real estate assets and companies owned by other Prince Group executives in Japan.
In the interview with Kyodo, the police official — who was authorised to speak to media only if his name was withheld — said Hu had been residing in Japan on a “high skilled professional” visa and was attempting to acquire permanent residency.
Tokyo police suspect Hu of filing a fraudulent change-of-address notification after moving to Japan, and arrested him on the basis of violating laws against using false electronic official records.
Hu was also the owner of a Tokyo-based company called Tokuten Shoji Ltd, according to company documents seen by Kyodo and OCCRP, although authorities could not determine the extent of its actual business scope.
Authorities would continue to investigate any possible violations of Japanese law.
Hu Xiaowei did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent to his personal assistant, whom OCCRP had previously corresponded with.
Prince Group also did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In a previous recent statement, a Prince Group spokesperson dismissed allegations against the conglomerate and its chairman Chen Zhi, who has been sanctioned and indicted in the U.S.
“Mr. Chen and his companies were not a criminal syndicate but a collection of legitimate businesses serving millions of people and employing tens of thousands of people across the globe,” the spokesperson said by email.
“Chen Zhi and the Prince Group of companies are innocent of the wild and unfounded accusations made by the U.S government, parroted in jurisdictions around the world,” the spokesperson added.
AloJapan.com