AIJ head faces criminal probe

On suspicion of pension funds fraud, the Metropolitan Police Department plans to launch a criminal investigation of Kazuhiko Asakawa, president of AIJ Investment Advisors Co., according to police sources.  They believed that Asakawa, 60, sold foreign investment trust products to the pension funds at inflated prices and defrauded them of huge amounts of money. The department is also considering some people who are involved in the case that includes Hideaki Nishimura, president of ITM Securities Co., which is affiliated with AIJ.  According to investigation sources, Asakawa sold investment trust products to operators of employees’ and corporate pension funds in the Kanto and Koshinetsu regions last year.  The investment advisory firms then invest the assets at their own discretion. The system is supposedly beneficial for clients as they do not need to make their own investment decisions.

The MPD suspects Asakawa did not invest most of the money AIJ received from its clients. Instead, he is believed to have used the money to refund clients who wanted to cancel their contracts. –(The Yomiuri Shimbun)