3rd alleged credit-card scam ring busted
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
Homeland Security and U.S. Secret Service Agents have stopped what they say is the second high-end Japanese credit-card scam ring in two weeks, with the arrest of three people carrying a detailed shopping list and photographs of things to buy from places such as Tiffany & Co. and Luis Vuitton.
The three made their initial appearance in federal court on Wednesday and were being held in custody until a detention hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
It was the third time this year in Honolulu that Secret Service agents have arrested so-called "shoppers" recruited in Japanese pachinko parlors (pachinko is a popular pinball-like slot machine game), possibly by Japanese yakuza (organized crime ring) gang members. The shoppers are promised around $1,000 for a one-week, all-expenses paid shopping spree in Hawai'i, officials say. Their assignment is to return with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of legitimate, high-end merchandise that's resold on the Japanese black market, according to the Secret Service.
Groups of Japanese shoppers also have targeted Guam, Australia and Thailand, said Rick Walkinshaw, assistant to the special agent in charge of Secret Service's Asia-Pacific Region.
The last group of five Japanese nationals caught in Honolulu were arrested with Rolex and Breitling watches, Chanel bags and Christian Dior sunglasses worth an estimated $150,000. But the three arrested Tuesday — Takashi Saito, 50, Masami Nishimura, 48, and Hideki Kasahara, 26 — were stopped by the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection before they could start buying merchandise with forged credit cards, Walkinshaw said.
"We got them before they did any shopping," Walkinshaw said. "That's a good point."
Defense attorney Randall Oyama represents Nishimura, as well as Kazutaka Kaniwa from the first case this year in May. Kaniwa and his fellow defendants were all convicted and await sentencing, Oyama said.
The allegations against his clients are similar, Oyama said, "but I have no knowledge they're part of the same ring."
Attorney Clifford Hunt said his client, Kasahara, told investigators that he knows nothing about a credit-card scheme.
"They questioned him and he denied any involvement with the guys he was traveling with," Hunt said. "Basically he doesn't know anything about this operation. He was traveling on the same flight but he denies being connected in any way."
Attorneys representing each of the six other defendants from the last two cases did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
Saito, Nishimura and Kasahara booked travel plans through the same agency as the previous group, according to the Secret Service. They were caught carrying 33 bogus credit cards and passports with their own pictures but bearing someone else's name, according to agents.
Unlike the last shoppers who came with suitcases full of clothes, Nishimura had no luggage. And Kasahara brought only two T-shirts and a pair of boxer shorts, according to the Secret Service's affidavit.
"They didn't carry much luggage with them on this trip," Walkinshaw said. "That was one of the things that keyed the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection. But based on their method of operation, it appears that they're probably linked to the other group. These wise guys aren't going to ABC stores. They're going to Tiffany and Louis Vuitton."
After the second arrest in Honolulu, Secret Service agents visited high-end Waikiki and Ala Moana stores to reiterate simple instructions for dealing with suspected fraudulent credit cards, such as asking for identification that matches the name on the card.
"It's big business," Walkinshaw said. "I don't think they're going to stop. ... But hopefully the more we catch, the less they'll target us."
Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.
