CHIBA (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested seven members of a fraud ring who’re suspected of intentionally inflicting automobile accidents and fraudulently claiming greater than 60 million yen from insurance coverage corporations, studies the Asahi Shimbun (Mar. 12).
On May 9, 2023, Eiji Koyanagi, a 56-year-old resident of Kawasaki City, and two different suspects are alleged to have deliberately precipitated two automobiles to collide in a restaurant car parking zone in Yokohama City.
They then deceived an insurance coverage firm by claiming it was an unintentional accident and obtained roughly 6.67 million yen in payouts.
The different 4 suspects precipitated an analogous accident on a highway in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture on February 16, 2025. After the insurance coverage firm grew to become suspicious, they didn’t make a payout.
Upon his arrest on suspicion of fraud, Koyanagi said, “It’s true that I caused a traffic accident and defrauded insurance companies out of payments, but I never received any of the money.” Meanwhile, the opposite six suspects have admitted to the fees.
Koyanagi, the group’s chief, is nicknamed Crayfish. The arrest just isn’t the primary of Koyanagi. He additionally already stands accused of inflicting different accidents.
Police are investigating the chance that Koyanagi and his associates deliberately precipitated no less than eight accidents in Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Nagano and Osaka prefectures since January 2023. They then defrauded a complete of roughly 62 million yen from insurance coverage corporations.
The matter surfaced in March of final 12 months after an insurance coverage firm contacted the Tokyo police to report {that a} group was inflicting a lot of automobile accidents deliberately.