Photo/Illutration A building housing Softbank Corp.’s headquarters in Tokyo’s Minato Ward (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Tokyo police arrested two former Softbank Corp. employees and another man on suspicion of amassing 1.2 billion yen ($7.9 million) through a fraudulent investment scheme using the telecom giant’s name.

The Metropolitan Police Department apprehended Ryo Shimizu, 47, Kengo Masuda, 42, and Shingo Morita, 41, on Nov. 8.

“We regard this as an extremely malicious act and a serious matter,” Softbank said in a statement. “We have been fully cooperating with the investigation and will continue to do so.”

The three suspects are accused of inviting around 20 investors to Softbank’s Tokyo headquarters between January and March 2022 to solicit short-term loans for a 9.6-billion-yen project purportedly to update computer systems at the company’s domestic outlets.

One of the investors, a company owner in his 30s, made seven payments totaling 1.2 billion yen for the project that promised a 20-percent yield.

The suspects are also believed to have bilked 100 million yen from other participants.

The project, according to investigators, was fake.

Police have not disclosed whether the three have admitted to or denied the allegations.

SoftBank dismissed Shimizu and Masuda in October 2022 after the allegations came to light.

Shimizu, from Tokyo’s Itabashi Ward, was in charge of the company’s digital transformation team, while Masuda, from Hyogo Prefecture, led a smaller team under Shimizu.

Morita, from Tokyo’s Minato Ward, is a former apparel company president who currently works in the sex industry.

(This article was written by Keita Yamaguchi and Tabito Fukutomi.)

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