The Yomiuri ShimbunIt is highly significant that police have investigated the money collected by a crime syndicate from subordinate groups as funds for its management. We hope this will help bring an end to a heinous criminal network.
Fukuoka prefectural police have arrested the top boss of Kudo-kai, an extremely dangerous designated yakuza group based in Kitakyushu, on suspicion of violating the Income Tax Law. The boss is suspected of not reporting to tax authorities ¥227 million in income from money he allegedly collected from subordinates, evading about ¥88 million in taxes.
This is the first time Japanese police have deemed the money collected by a yakuza organization from subordinate groups to be an individual’s income and built a case for tax evasion.
Kudo-kai is a dangerous criminal group that has harmed the general public and engaged in gang wars with other yakuza groups. Its top boss has been arrested before and indicted for his alleged involvement in such cases as the shooting death of a former head of a local fisheries cooperative. That incident occurred after the former cooperative head refused to allow Kudo-kai’s involvement in a port facility expansion project.
To make progress toward defeating Kudo-kai, the prefectural police must meticulously trace the flow of money from subordinate groups to the top boss, so as to cut off the group’s funding sources.
Gang members extort protection money from companies and citizens, which is then taken by higher-ranking groups as operational funds.
It is hard to uncover the workings of such money collection systems. Police and tax authorities have tried to pursue corporate tax evasion charges against financial institutions with deep ties with gangster groups. Such investigations have faced limits, however, because crime organizations are not regarded as corporate bodies.
Smoking guns seized
As part of efforts to disband Kudo-kai, Fukuoka prefectural police launched a crackdown in pursuit of the group’s top boss last September. During the investigation, they seized memos showing money transfers, reportedly finding that part of the funds in question had been transferred monthly to bank accounts of the boss’ relatives and others.
It is also worth noting that the prefectural police, prosecutors and the national taxation authorities cooperated closely in the case. Sharing information, they jointly searched related locations. The securing of gang informants with inside knowledge is also said to have contributed to progress in the investigation.
The approach currently being employed — which treats the money collected by the gang boss from subordinates as personal income — can serve as a reference for other prefectural police headquarters battling crime syndicates.
Ordinances to eliminate criminal syndicates, which were put into force in all 47 prefectures by 2011, ban citizens and businesses from providing remuneration to gang members. The movement to expel gangsters has been gaining greater momentum.
But there has been no end to such incidents as revenge attacks on businesses and drinking and dining establishments that refuse to pay protection money. If they yield to threats and pay such fees, it will be impossible to cut off gangsters’ funding sources.
The police must also make wholehearted efforts to safeguard citizens who are directly confronted by organized crime.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, June 20, 2015)
