Shakedown for ¥3.5 million targeted ozeki's baseball betting
Kyodo News
Tokyo police obtained an arrest warrant Wednesday for a former sumo wrestler who allegedly extorted about ¥3.5 million from ozeki Kotomitsuki in connection with illegal gambling on professional baseball games.
The Metropolitan Police Department was expected to arrest the former wrestler, Mitsutomo Furuichi, the 38-year-old brother of a current wrestler in the Onomatsu stable who has admitted involvement in gambling, as soon as possible.
Kotomitsuki earlier told the police that gangsters extorted about ¥3 million in hush money from him to cover up his gambling and demanded another ¥100 million, which he did not pay, according to police sources.
Investigative sources said Wednesday that a suspected mobster was present at a meeting in which Furuichi and Kotomitsuki discussed payment of the hush money in March.
Kotomitsuki is suspected of habitual gambling, and the police are likely to try to build a criminal case against him. He holds the second-highest rank of the top division.
