A 70-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of fraud over allegedly swindling a Tokyo woman in her 70s out of about 10 million yen in cash from 2013-14, pretending to be a doctor of aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
According to sources close to the investigation, the man, who has no fixed address and whose occupation is unknown, was arrested on Aug. 1 by the Metropolitan Police Department's Itabashi Station. He allegedly claimed that the woman would be paid a monthly dividend of 80,000 yen if she let him manage 10 million yen in investments he said he would make in the United Arab Emirates.
He reportedly told her he is a brain surgeon with MSF, and had examined foreign dignitaries.
He is believed to have gained her trust by saying he had treated a Dubai prince who had a traffic accident and a South Korean corporate chairman who was ill.
The police station suspects he used the money he allegedly swindled to operate a design firm he was then running.
MSF, known as Doctors Without Borders in English, is a nongovernmental medical organization. Its members help victims of armed conflicts, famine, natural disasters and other incidents.
In 1999, MSF won the Nobel Peace Prize for its pioneering work in humanitarian assistance activities around the world.
Police authorities are on high alert over the recent growing number of frauds in which perpetrators pretend to be part of nongovernmental or nonprofit organizations.
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