COVID relief money mistakenly sent to single Japanese resident

A source close to the case said that over 35 million yen has been returned to a local government in western Japan that mistakenly sent 46.3 million yen $363,000 in COVID 19 relief money to a single resident.

A payment collection firm returned the funds, which were part of the support meant for 463 low-income households in Abu, Yamaguchi Prefecture, and was transferred in error to local resident Sho Taguchi, 24.

The details that led to the repayment are being investigated by the Abu government and the police. Taguchi was previously described as telling police he spent the money in online casinos.

Taguchi was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of computer fraud for allegedly transferring 4 million yen in funds he knew to be mistakenly sent to him on April 12 to the account of an online payments system and profiting illegally from it.

In addition to sending Taguchi a special fixed benefit of 100,000 yen on April 8, the city government transferred 46.3 million yen to his account, according to his lawyer.

His legal representative said that he gave a total of 46.33 million yen over 34 transactions, with the majority going to three domestic payment processing agents. Over 27 transfers, more than 35.92 million yen were sent to a single firm.

The company with the highest concentration of funds then wired them back to the Abu city government, the source said.

The town government refrained from commenting on the repayment due to its ongoing suit against Taguchi for about 51.15 million yen, which includes mistakenly sent funds as well as expenses including legal fees.

Norihiko Hanada is going to give a press conference on the situation around the money's recovery.