By Terje Langeland & Takahiko Hyuga
Bloomberg News - - Oct 23, 2013
The yakuza, Japan’s organized-crime syndicates that have reaped
billions from activities ranging from extortion to human trafficking,
are finding their ranks decimated by authorities employing methods
similar to those used to jail Al Capone: going after their money.
Japan’s Financial Services Agency delivered the latest blow, last month ordering Mizuho Financial Group Inc.
to improve compliance and then demanding that top executives report by
Oct. 28 what they knew and when about a consumer-credit affiliate found
making loans to crime groups.
The regulator’s slap adds to pressure from yakuza-exclusion ordinances
enacted nationwide in 2011 making it illegal to do business with gang
members, as well as a U.S. executive order
that year requiring financial institutions to freeze yakuza assets. The
U.S. Treasury Department so far has frozen about $55,000 of yakuza
holdings including two Japan-issued American Express cards, according to
documents obtained by Bloomberg News under the Freedom of Information
Act.
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