Reuters: Japan police arrest 4 in Lehman loan scam case
Japanese police have arrested four men on suspicion of defrauding U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers by using fake documents carrying trading firm Marubeni Corp's letterhead, a police spokesman said. The four are suspected of forging the documents to obtain over 9 billion yen ($83 million) in funds from the bank last October, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police said on Monday. The arrests come after Lehman on March 31 filed a lawsuit against Marubeni to recoup some $352 million, blaming Marubeni staff for the swindle. It seeks to recover loans made last year to finance a revamp of hospitals and lease medical equipment via Asclepius, a now bankrupt unit of drug firm LTT Bio-Pharma Co, and arranged through Marubeni staff, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said in March. Marubeni, Japan's fifth-biggest trading house, restated in a statement on Monday that it was not involved in the scam and had no obligation to pay Lehman. The trading firm said it had fired on March 10 Shingo Yamaura, a former part-time worker at Marubeni. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police said the four arrested were Yamaura, 35; Shigenori Saito, 46, former president of Asclepius (above); Yuzuru Yamanaka, 34, former president of LTT Bio-Pharma; and Fumihiro Takahashi, 61, president of a Tokyo-based building planning company, A spokesman for Lehman Brothers in Tokyo said the company had no comment on the arrests.
