According to lawyers for the victims and other sources, the suspects are believed to have bilked about 500 restaurant operators in many parts of Japan of approximately 136 million yen.

The four arrested on fraud charges on Saturday include Takehiro Osu, 41-year-old former president of Daito Bussan, a Tokyo-based company that planned the bogus food events. The Tokyo police suspect that Osu was the mastermind of the scheme.

Osu and his accomplices were arrested on suspicion of defrauding a Tokyo company and a female restaurant manager in Osaka, western Japan, in her 30s of a total of some 650,000 yen between late November las year and early January by offering a 50 pct discount in store opening fees for the food events. (Jiji Press)