Sakai City files fraud allegations against former director of facility for children with disabilities

From NHK

November 7 2022

Sakai City, OSAKA – A former director of a company that operated a facility for children with disabilities was accused of defrauding the city of Sakai in Osaka of more than 78 million yen in benefits by making a false application. A complaint was filed.

Criminal charges were filed against the 35-year-old former CEO of “Quality”, which operated a facility for children with disabilities in Sakai City, Osaka.

According to Sakai City, between 2017 and 2019, the former director was lying when applying, claiming that the manager was needed to be assigned to operate the facility was working even though he was not full-time.

It is suspected that he deceived the city of more than 78 million yen in benefits by padding the number of users using the names of children who attended the facility.

In September 2019, the city’s on-site inspection revealed fraud and demanded that the benefits be returned, but the city did not respond, so the city fraud the former representative director on the 1st November.

In response to the city’s investigation so far, the former representative director said, “I knew that I was operating without the necessary staffing,” and admitted that he had applied fraudulently.

The city has already canceled the designation as a business operator, and the company went bankrupt in July 2021.