Shoppers from Japan held until hearings

Associated Press

Five Japanese shoppers accused of purchasing more than $100,000 worth of high-end merchandise with fake credit cards have been detained until their preliminary hearings next week.

The hearings for the four men and one woman are set for Aug. 28.

Masashi Endo, 50; Mitsuyuki Ono, 37; Masaki Fukazawa, 43; Tatsuya Kumagawa, 19; and Sakura Ogawa, 24, were arrested last week and made their second appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin S.C. Chang.

Federal officials say the five are believed to be connected with an increasingly sophisticated Japanese ring that has targeted Honolulu and Guam, buying everything from Rolex and Breitling watches to Chanel bags and Christian Dior sunglasses and shipping them back to Japan to sell.

The arrests were the second of their kind in Honolulu this year.

Officials have said the case mirrors that of another ring that was broken up in Guam last month.

The rings recruit groups of about five people and offer each of them about $1,000 and a one-week, all-expenses paid shopping spree in Hawai'i.

The shoppers then use realistic-looking credit cards with consumers' account numbers, usually obtained via the Internet or from restaurants.