Kuchikomi May. 29, 2009 - 07:00AM JST ( 17 )

It’s hard to believe that in this day and age, some types of business entertainment still exist.
Akihisa Nakabayashi, president of real estate company Koshi Trust, was arrested on May 21 on charges of fraud. Major banks had financed over 20 billion yen through Koshi to approximately 70 small to medium sized businesses, 20 of which were found to be dummy companies. Involvement of crime syndicates is also suspected.

According to a national newspaper reporter, Koshi had lavished a substantial amount of money to buy over loan officers at major banks in various ways, such as fishing on Nakabayashi’s private cruiser, lending luxury automobiles and footing bills for stays at four-star hotels.

In order to secure the cooperation of other real estate company managers, Koshi had also used soaplands – in addition to extravagant wining and dining – if that happened to be the client’s preference.

A source in Koshi Trust confided that Nakamura would take real estate company owners to the most expensive soaplands in Yoshiwara where they would literally bump into acquaintances in the industry, also being ‘entertained’ by Nakamura.

It has been confirmed that outrageous bills were frequently sent to Koshi from the soaplands. As one manager of a Yoshiwara soapland says, “Since the ‘bubble’ period, it’s become very rare to issue bills as company entertainment.”

Koshi’s client entertainment was clearly over the edge, which should have made it obvious to anyone that there was something wrong with the business itself.