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Executive killed Japanese financier after losing millions: report

AFP/The Local
AFP/The Local - [email protected]
Executive killed Japanese financier after losing millions: report

A fishery executive admitted to killing a Swiss-based Japanese fund manager and his wife over a grudge he held following heavy investment losses, according to a report.

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Japanese police on Saturday identified the bodies of financier Makoto Shimomi, 51, and his wife Mie, 48, who disappeared after leaving their luxury apartment in Tokyo's upmarket Ginza district on December 7th following a return to Japan from Switzerland.

Police dug up the bodies in a vacant lot in Tokyo's northern suburbs on Monday after receiving a tip-off.

Officers have since arrested two men in connection with the suspected double murder.

One of those arrested, 43-year-old fishery company executive Tsuyoshi Watanabe, reportedly admitted to the killing.

"I strangled the couple because he was responsible for me losing hundreds of millions of yen (millions of dollars)," he was quoted as telling police.

One of the bodies has already been identified as that of the husband by fingerprints and other evidence, a police spokesman said.

"We have confirmed the other body as that of the wife as its DNA matched that of her parent."

Makoto, who ran a fund based in Liechtenstein, regularly travelled between Japan and Switzerland.

Bloomberg News identified the fund as Asia Pacific Invest, an open-ended fund which invested "in a wide range of asset classes, shorting and using leverage".

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