{"id":173979,"date":"2025-10-30T14:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T05:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=173979&#038;lang=en"},"modified":"2025-10-30T14:40:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T05:40:00","slug":"five-arrested-in-570million-mortgage-fraud-linked-to-kudo-kai","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/news\/five-arrested-in-570million-mortgage-fraud-linked-to-kudo-kai\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Arrested in \u00a5570 Million Mortgage Fraud Linked to Kudo-kai"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Police in Kitakyushu have arrested five men, including 58-year-old construction company president Takamichi Ishii, on suspicion of defrauding financial institutions of about \u00a5570 million through fraudulent housing loans. The group allegedly conspired to falsify employment records and personal identities, including one suspect who pretended to become a Buddhist monk and changed his name to obtain a \u00a545 million \u201cFlat 35\u201d mortgage in December 2022. Investigators believe Ishii inflated construction cost estimates to pocket an additional \u00a513 million and led about 20 similar scams totaling \u00a5570 million. Authorities suspect that some of the proceeds were funneled to the designated organized crime group Kudo-kai, and are continuing to investigate possible links to its funding network. <\/span><b>\u00a0Source:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/news.tnc.co.jp\/news\/articles\/NID2025102827782\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TNC<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_173982\" style=\"width: 1410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-173982\" class=\"size-full wp-image-173982\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/fnn_photoac-monk_2025_cl.jpg?resize=1400%2C934&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Five Arrested in \u00a5570 Million Mortgage Fraud Linked to Kudo-kai\" width=\"1400\" height=\"934\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/fnn_photoac-monk_2025_cl.jpg?w=1400&amp;ssl=1 1400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/fnn_photoac-monk_2025_cl.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/fnn_photoac-monk_2025_cl.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/fnn_photoac-monk_2025_cl.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-173982\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo from Photo AC<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stay informed with the latest Fukuoka &amp; Kyushu news and events in English. Sign up for our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/mailmagazine\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">free weekly newsletter <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">today and never miss a beat. Opt out anytime, your privacy is our priority. Get the inside scoop with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/mailmagazine\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Now<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Summaries based on public content, errors may occur during translation. Images credited independently. Send feedback using <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/contact\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this <\/span><b>form<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Police in Kitakyushu have arrested five men, including 58-year-old construction company president Takamichi Ishii&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29305,"featured_media":173982,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"class_list":["post-173979","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-kitakyushu","news-category-general","en-US"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/173979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}