By Anton Bridge
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese financial giant Nomura Holdings said on Thursday that a former employee at its brokerage unit had been arrested on suspicion of fraud, the latest in a string of scandals that have dogged the firm over the past year.
Yuta Cho, 30, who left Nomura in June 2024, has been arrested on fraud charges, Nomura’s joint chief compliance officer, Shinichi Mizuno, told a briefing.
The crimes were alleged to have occurred in January 2024, Nomura said in a statement.
Nomura was made aware of the alleged fraud from a customer after Cho had left the company, at which point it immediately spoke to the police, Nomura’s vice president and chief of staff, Toshiyasu Iiyama, told the same briefing.
Kyodo News reported earlier that the suspect is accused of having stolen 10 million yen ($65,700) from a woman in her 70s, telling her it would be invested in an interest-bearing savings fund.
Mizuno and Iiyama did not confirm the nature of the charges due to the ongoing police investigation, but said that no other customers had been affected by the alleged fraud. Cho could not be reached for comment.
Another former Nomura employee was charged with crimes including attempted murder and robbery in November, prompting a public apology from the company’s head.
And in late October, Japan’s banking regulator slapped Nomura with a 21.8 million yen penalty after an investigation determined that a trader manipulated the price of 10-year bond government futures contracts in March 2021.
($1 = 152.2300 yen)
(Reporting by Anton Bridge, Satoshi Sugiyama and Rocky Swift; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Ros Russell)
