A former employee of a crowdfunding company in Tokyo was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement for business purposes, alleging that he had illegally embezzled about 25 million yen of the funds received from the general public.
He stated to the investigation that he wanted money to spend on horse racing.
The person arrested was Hiroshi Sugasaka (43), a former employee of the crowdfunding management company "CAMPFIRE" in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo.
According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, in 2019, three years ago, out of the funds received from the general public, a total of about 25 million yen was illegally embezzled four times, and there is a suspicion of embezzlement in business.
A former employee was in charge of accounting, but an internal investigation revealed fraud and was disciplinary dismissed in November.
The company operates crowdfunding on behalf of the proposers of various businesses, but the former employee pretended to send the collected funds to the proposer and transferred a part to his own account. It means that it was out.
The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating the details of the investigation, saying that he admitted that he wanted money to spend on horse racing.
Operating company “No impact on business proposers”
According to the company's homepage, "CAMPFIRE" is a support project for small and medium-sized enterprises affected by the new coronavirus, and a project for Ukrainians evacuating to Japan to sell food in kitchen cars. , Has run cloud funding on behalf of the proposer.
The company said that the funds raised by this incident did not reach the proponents of the business, and said, "We apologize for causing concern and inconvenience to everyone involved." I am commenting.