Crime
Thailand: Japanese Stock Manipulator Arrested after a Decade on the Run
National police chief Chakthip Chaijinda bring Yasuo Tsubaki to a news conference at the Immigration Bureau in Bangkok on Friday.
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BANGKOK -Thailand’s Immigration police paraded 62-year-old Japanese National Yasuo Tsubaki before a news briefing at their Bangkok office on Friday after he fled 4-billion-baht stock manipulation charges in Japan and allegedly had surgery to change his appearance.
Yasuo Tsubaki is wanted byJapanese authorities for allegedly manipulating stock prices in Japan, the Bangkok Post Reported. He was arrested at his house on Rama II area in Samut Sakhon province on Wednesday.
Immigration commissioner Nathathorn Prousoonthorn said Mr Tsubaki had been accused of manupulating the share prices of OHT Inc during 2000-05, causing damage estimated at 12 billion yen (4 billion baht).
The Japan Times reported Mr Tsubaki was suspected of playing a leading role in the inflation of OHT’s stock price by repeatedly issuing buy and sell orders.
Tsubaki and his alleged accomplices bought shares in an electric testing equipment company for which he worked, OHT Inc., to drive up their price, then sold them to make a profit, a scam popularly known as “pump and dump.â€
Mr Tsubaki who is also a lawyer fled Japan immediately after the share price collapse. He was disbarred by the Dai-ichi Tokyo Bar Association in 2011.
Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn said when Mr Tsubaki was seeking a retirement visa, immigration police checked his profile because his face looked different from the passport photo. The check revealed that there was a warrant from the Japanese authorites for his arrest.
Mr Tsubaki admitted that he was wanted in his home country, the immigration chief said.
The Thai police said Japan had informed them he might have had plastic surgery to avoid the arrest.
National police chief Chakthip Chaijinda said it was the first arrest by Thai police of a fugitive undergoing plastic surgery.
He said Mr Tsubaki fled to Thailand in 2007.
The Japanese man had kept a low profile in Thailand and used bank accounts and mobile phone number registered under the names of Thai people, Pol Gen Chakthip said.
The police also learned that the man had rented a condominium room for over 100,000 baht a month on Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok before moving to Maha Chai area on Rama II Road in Samut Sakhon province.
Mr Tsubaki is scheduled to be deported back to Japan on Monday.
