Japan police raid yakuza offices over ATM fraud
Jiji -- Feb 27
Japanese police on Monday searched locations linked to yakuza crime syndicate groups over their alleged organized involvement in simultaneous fraudulent withdrawals totaling 1.8 billion yen from automated teller machines in Japan in 2016.

The raid covered five offices of yakuza groups, including the headquarters of Yamaguchi-gumi in the western city of Kobe and the head office of Kodo-kai, a core group of Yamaguchi-gumi, in the central city of Nagoya and an office of Sumiyoshi-kai in Tokyo.

The searches were conducted by investigators from five prefectural police departments, including those of Chiba and Fukuoka.

In the May 2016 fraud, the money was illegally withdrawn simultaneously at convenience store ATMs in 17 prefectures, including Tokyo, Aichi and Osaka, with forged cash cards using customer information from South Africa's Standard Bank.

The stolen cash may have been passed on to yakuza groups, investigative sources said. Overseas hacker involvement is also suspected, they said.

News source: Jiji