Embassy sale fraud: imposter disguised as N.Z. Ambassador

Press, 15 January 1982, Page 13

Embassy sale fraud: imposter disguised as N.Z. Ambassador

From

BRUCE ROSCOE,

in Tokyo

The following is a factual account of how employees of the New Zealand Embassy at Tokyo masterminded and executed ' the multiple, fraudulent sale of the embassy building and property. Although brief news reports on the case appeared in some New Zealand newspapers at the time, to date no detailed report of the fraud has been written in English. The following feature has been researched from Japanese-language documents of the Japanese Government and other related material.

One of Japan's most curious instances of fraud is still recounted with quiet amusement by Tokyo’s expatriate community at the hotel bars they frequent after work — and doubtless also by Japanese employees of diplomatic establishments in Tokyo and abroad.

Apart from hearings which went all the way to the Supreme Court, no full account has been made of the multiple, fraudulent sale of the New Zealand Embassy building and the land on which it stood, which was masterminded by some of the embassy’s own staff whose plotting went undetected for more than a year and a half.

It is a tale of intrigue, incompetence, deception, and death. According to documents of the Japanese Government, the planning of the sales by the embassy's staff began in mid-May, 1968. In 1969, the New Zealand Embassy, situated in Chi-yoda-ku, in central Tokyo and near the British Embassy, was a shabby, twostorey building giving the appearance of a rooming house. Inside the two-storey house, which had a cellar and basement, were five beds and three bathtubs. Outside on the lawn stood two unattractive stone lanterns — one big, one small — and a chipped statue of a Buddha.

Not surprisingly, prospective buyers showed little interest in the building; they sought the choice, 1600-square-metre section in the middle of Tokyo, and the embassy’s staff had set a basement-bargan price of $472,000. Collusion between at least two employees of the embassy. the Ambassador’s driver, Mr Tadashi Nishikawa, and the market research officer, Mr Hiroshi Yonekura, to sell the property to as many different buyers as they could, and to take the money and run, began in May. 1968.

The staff learnt that the New Zealand Government was planning to shift the embassy to- the quieter residential district of Shibuya. It was only natural that the embassy would wish to dispose of the property. The shift was to be made early in 1970.

But it was not the first time for the embassy to be blatantly deceived by its staff. The Ambassador’s driver lived something of a double life. Employed by the embassy in March, 1964, Mr Nishikawa was, unbeknown to his new employers, a dealer in black-market driving licences. He was found guilty by the Tokyo District Court in July, 1965, of bribing four policemen to obtain the licences.

The New Zealand Embassy was unaware that the driver had been given a sentence (suspended for three years) of 10 months' imprisonment, with hard labour, and fined $250. The policemen were dismissed. Mr Nishikawa continued as the Ambassador's driver, and the Ambassador apparent!}’ was oblivious to the fact that his driver had absented himself for court appearances.

The building sale was not a complicated fraud to execute. On November 18, 1968, Messrs Yonekura and Nishikawa invited the president of the Tokyo-based Shimato Construction Co., Ltd, Mr Kikuo Sato, to a restaurant in Marunouchi, near Tokyo

Station, where, over lunch, Mr Nishikawa assured Mr Sato that the New Zealand Ambassador had entrusted to him the sale of the property.

Mr Sato was asked to write an application to the New Zealand Government stating that he wished to purchase the property. The Ambassador at the time, Mr J. Scott, who was soon to be replaced by Mr Hunter Wade, could not attend the luncheon because he was busy, Mr Sato was told. In January, 1969, Mr Sato presented his firm’s application to Mr Nishikawa. Seated in the New Zealand Ambassador’s chair in the embassy on May 13, 1969, was an imposter — a businessman from Hong Kong who bore an astonishing likeness to Mr Wade. As could be expected, Mr Sato had requested a meeting with Mr Wade. The “ambassador" confirmed from his chair that he had put the matter of the embassy’s sale in the hands of his driver and the next day Mr Nishikawa received a cheque for 70 million yen

Set-up in the Embassy

($179,000) from Shimato Construction, for which a receipt was given bearing the forged signature of Mr Hunter Wade. Mr Sato had been hoodwinked, yet nothing of the deal had occurred to him as strange.

An embassy stamp had been used on the receipt, and Mr Sato had met the “ambassador" — a man he later described as ambassadorial, self-assured, and in his late fifties. In November Mr Sato had wanted to see the Ambassador again and on November 28 Mr Nishikawa obligingly had a friend take Mr Wade's second-hand Chrysler New Yorker to the Shimato firm in Aoyama. The American car flew the New Zealand flag, and inside sat Mr Nishikawa, who had elevated himself to the position of “ambassador’s secretary.” the imposter, and the driver, a Mr Keisuke Tanaka, a money-lender who formerly drove for the Swedish Embassy, and a close friend of Mr Nishikawa. He was later to be arrested as an accomplice. With "ambassadpr," “secretary," and “buyer" inside the Chrysler New Yorker, the “driver” proceeded to a restaurant in Kagurazaka, in central Tokyo, where the embassy “sale" would be marked by a celebration. Mr Nishikawa wanted more money and, on January 17, 1970, he contacted the Shimato firm to say that a New Zealand Government property inspector was soon to visit Tokyo. The proposed sale would need the inspector’s approval, and this surely would be given if more than half the full amount was paid up. Another 30 million yen ($77,000) would be sufficient, said Mr Nishikawa.

On February 6, Mr Nishikawa was to take to the Shimato firm the documents for the additional payment. But when on February 5 Mr Sato telephoned the embassy to confirm the following day’s appointment, he was

told by the receptionist. Miss Ushiyama, that Mr Nishikawa was no longer employed by the embassy.

Mr Sato may have seen the advertisement in a Tokyo newspaper that morning, for tenants for a new apartment block which was to be built on the embassy site. The episode was drawing to a close. The embassy had been “sold” to too many different buyers. The advertisement had not been placed by Mr Sato's firm.

Denentoshi Kogyo, acting for Odakyu Real Estate, was the second firm to be duped. The method was virtually identical to that which had been used against Shimato Construction Co., Ltd.

Denentoshi’s director, Mr Kiichiro Kawano, was contacted by Mr Nishikawa and soon afterwards was met at a high-class restaurant near the embassy by Messrs Yonekura, Nishikawa, and a Mr Tomou Hagiwara. an associate of the plotters who. when not busy with fraud, ran a chemist’s shop. Mr Kawano signed a contract for the sale of the property, dated June 19, 1968, at the restaurant.

Both the English and Japanese copies of the contract were the work of Mr Yonekura, the English copy hammered out on the embassy’s Olivetti 82 typewriter.

Mr Yonekura, a graduate of an economics college, was capable of producing convincing forgeries of documents. His language skills earned him the position of translator at a United States base in Kobe, and in March, 1954, he was taken on as a commercial officer of the United States Embassy in Tokyo. It was that job he left to join the New Zealand Embassy in May, 1964.

At the restaurant. Mr Nishikawa received a deposit of 50 million yen ($128,000) and Mr Kawano was given a receipt, “signed” by Mr J. V. Scott, whose forged signature also appeared on the contract. The price was 184.128 million yen ($472,000), and the remainder of 134.128 million yen was to be paid when the deeds and property registration were changed, but no later than December 29. 1969, said the eight-article contract.

The next move of Messrs Yonekura and Nishikawa was to send a letter, dated November 1, 1969, in the name of Ambassador Hunter Wade, to the Odakyu firm telling them that, as the new embassy building, under construction at Kamiyama-cho. Shibuya-ku. would not be ready' until the end of January, the embassy shift would not be made until February 15, 1970. Mr Nishikawa was looking for reasons to delay the change of deeds for as long

More money,

more time

as possible. He wanted more time, and he sought more money. This time the excuse was Christmas. The Ambassador. Mr Wade, needed a little more money to meet his embassy's Christmas and New Year expenses, Mr Kawano was told. Ten million yen ($25,000) would do. Once more, it was time to celebrate, and the venue was Tokyo’s prestigious Hilton Hotel, the date, Christmas Eve, 1969. Odakyu Real Estate compromised the Christmas request and gave Mr Nishikawa eight million yen ($20,000), and at the hotel Mr Nishikawa handed Mr Kawano a receipt for the amount.

The game might have been up had Mr Kawano, or any of his staff, compared the signature of Mr Wade which appeared on that receipt with the signature which marked the letter of November 1. Perhaps one signature was the work of Mr Nishikawa, the other of Mr Yonekura. They were clearly of a different hand, and the discrepancy stood out at a glance.

But luck was still on the culprits' side. Odakyu, believing it was to become the legal owner of the property, immediately began arrangements to resell it at a profit.

Mr Nishikawa must have seen that something had gone wrong. He could not be reached after his resignation on February 5. He was going into hospital for an operation on his back, he told the embassy, and tiie embassy

later confirmed that he had been complaining about his back for a number of years. Mr Yonekura had got out much earlier. He gave no reason for the resignation he tended on December 11. 1968, effective from January 31, 1969. Perhaps, though, he had sensed no danger at all. Certainly he made no attempt to hide, or to relinquish his ties with New Zealand.

After quitting the embassy, Mr Yonekura was chosen by a New Zealand firm, Wright Stephenson and Co., Ltd, to head their Tokyo office, the base he used to carry out his part in the embassy sales and other deals.

Japanese police found evidence that one such other deal also involved the New Zealand Embassy. Mr Yonekura had seen to it that Fuji Chubo Setsubi Co., Ltd, was awarded the 18 million yen ($46,000) contract for the supply of kitchen equipment to New Zealand's exhibition at Expo '7O in Osaka. The equipment was supplied, through the embassy, to the New Zealand Meat Producers Board and Mr Yonekura was given a cheque, dated October 31, 1969, for 100,000 yen ($256) by Fuji Chubo as a payoff for his assistance.

The Okadyu firm had seen the advertisement for tenants to occupy apartments to be built on the embassy site in a morning paper of February 5, 1970, and. distressed, sent representatives to the embassy at 3.30 p.m. to seek explanations.

The embassy’s position — the only one it could adopt without getting itself into hot water — was to say that it did not regard itself a party to the case and had taken no action in it beyond reporting the allegations to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Had it accepted even partial culpability, by admitting that it was responsible for the actions of its employees as a Japanese organisation doubtless would have felt obliged to do, claims would have been made, and compensation demanded.

Still, the embassy was dumbfounded. It could not entertain the possibility that its Japanese staff were capable of such deceit. On Saturday, February 7, 1970, a

disbelieving Ambassador Hunter Wade was doing overtime at the embassy, writing to “Dear Karumi" of the Foreign Ministry, that:

“No proof of identity of the persons said to have been offering the property for sale has been produced ... and it should not be assumed, if they exist at all, that they had* previously been employed by us."

After all. Mr Yonekura was a good man. He was not away due to sickness any more than might reasonably be expected and he did not exceed his two-weeks vacation each year. In 1967, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Brian Taiboys, had personalty thanked him, in a letter of April 13, for his services during the Minister’s visit to Japan.

Mr Taiboys said in his letter that tie was “greatly impressed" with Mr Yonekura’s ability not only to carry out the duties with which he was entrusted concerning his visit, but also the extent of his knowledge of matters related to JapanNew Zealand trade.

From February to June, 1970, the embassy staff was busy making explanations to the Japanese Foreign Ministry. The stamp appearing on the forged contracts and receipts was not the official seal of the embassy. It was a rubber stamp, or a forgery of such a stamp — the embassy could not say which — used for certain documents and passports.

Mr Nishikawa, the embassy explained, sometimes was instructed to make inquiries about possible buyers for used cars that the embassy no longer needed, but he was not, the embassy said,

authorised to effect the sale. If the embassy property, which was held in the name of the New Zealand Government, were to be sold, a ministerial or Cabinet-level decision would be needed. The documents would be drawn up by the embassy's lawyer. Mr Arthur Mori, not the Ambassador’s driver or market research officer. Japanese detectives traced the foreigner, who had impersonated brilliantly the New Zealand ambassador, to Hong Kong. Mr Fredie Li-

Business in

the air

beiro helped to run a night club in Nathan Road, Kowloon, and he bore a striking resemblance to Mr Hunter Wade.

Although perhaps five or six years older, he was balding to roughly the same extent, and shared the same small eyes and English nose. His ears were much bigger, but apart from that no one who had seen only snapshots of the New Zealander could be blamed for confusing the two.

In May, 1968. Mr Libeiro had received a telephone call from a Mr Yuzuru Watanabe, his close friend and an associate of Mr Nishikawa. He was asked to fly to Tokyo. There was business in the air. and he was promised that his- hotel and travel expenses would be paid.

For two instalments totalling 500.000 yen ($1280) he agreed to do the job. He flew to Tokyo three times, but during ’ the October, 1969. visit was unable to meet the buyers. The deals over, Mr Watanabe took a plane to

Hong Kong and, hosted by Mr Libeiro, celebrated the swindle with a SHKIO,OOO (SNZ2.OOO) gambling spree in Macau. The New Zealand Embassy's new premises at Ka-miyama-cho were opened for business on February 23, 1970 and Sir Keith Holyoake, in his speech at the opening ceremony, was heard to remark to Mr Hunter Wade that he hoped the new site was. in fact, the property of the New Zealand Government.

The story broke in the Japanese press on May 30. 1970: the "Yomiuri Shimbun" national daily newspaper had its nose to the police investigations. As a fraud case, it was not particularly big, but the involvement of a foreign government added a touch of scandal.

The newspaper lost its chances of an exclusive story when, in May, ’it sent a helicopter to take aerial photographs of the embassy building. The national news agency, Kyodo, alerted by the Yomiuri helicopter, sensed that Yomiuri knew something it did not. Kyodo assigned a team of reporters to the story, and the news agency sent its findings to newspapers across the nation.

It had taken the remainder of February, and the following two months for the investigators of the special branch of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office to assemble their case, and on May 29. they arrested Mr Hiroshi Yonekura on charges of fraud. His friend, Mr Tomou Hagiwara. was arrested on related charges and Mr Tadashi Nishikawa was put on a nationwide “wanted" list.

Mr Nishikawa. seeing his photograph in the May 30 editions of the Tokyo morn-

ing newspapers, gave himself up to the prosecutor's office that afternoon.

More pieces fell into place on June 16 when two more arrests were made. Mr Yuzuru Watanabe, ostensibly a toy importer with a small business in the Meguro district of Tokyo, who had, through his father who ran the "First National Entertainment" cabaret on Hankow Road in Hong Kong, introduced Mr Fredie Libeiro to Messrs Nishikawa and Yonekura, was arrested. Mr Keisuke Tanaka, who had posed as a driver of the New Zealand Embassy, was also arrested.

In spite of the verdicts of guilty handed down by the Tokyo District Court on April 2. 1974, none of the culprits went to jail. Japan's legal system, based on the German model, gives some first offenders a second chance in the form of suspended sentences.

If, however, during the term of his suspended sentence a criminal is convicted of another crime, he must serve, consecutively, the first prison term and another term for the second offence.

Messrs Yonekura and Watanabe were given suspended sentences of three years, Mr Hagiwara five years, and Mr Tanaka 18 months. Records concerning the sentencing of Mr Nishi-

Cars for his girl friends

kawa have since been deleted. Mr Tadashi Nishikawa had been a used car dealer and a driver for various companies before joining the New Zealand Embassy. He had spent some time in hospital after

his arrest. He had been living high and suddenly was pulled down. Having divorced his first wife in 1960, in March of 1969 he met and soon married a Ginza bar hostess, only to divorce her five months later.

He had a penchant for expensive cars of foreign make, which he occasionaly bought for his girl-friends. He had taken 100 million yen ($256,000) of the swindled money for himself, and besides the cars he bought, he had, ironically, invested in property.

At the time of his arrest he had no money left. His belongings were sold to help compensate Shimato Construction Co., Ltd. Five years to the day on which he had toasted the embassy sale at the Hilton Hotel, on Christmas Day of 1974. at 5 a.m„ Mr Tadashi Nishikawa committed suicide.

The others appealed against their sentences, hoping for reduced terms. The Tokyo High Court on September 5, 1975, upheld the sentences of Messrs Watanabe and Tanaka, but reduced the sentences of Messrs Yonekura and Hagiwara to two years and four years respectively. An appeal was then made to the Supreme Court, which the court rejected on April 28, 1977. The full extent of the fraud, however, may never have been know. Tokyo police had strong grounds to suspect other construction firms had been similarly swindled. It was surmised that the firms, embarrassed by the fact that they had been conned — probably a gamble that the embassy employees thought they could risk — and also by the involvement of an office of a foreign Government, had declined to come forward with complaints.