Photo/Illutration Takazumi Fukuhara, middle, the former head of luxury watch-sharing service Toke Match, arrives at Narita Airport in Chiba Prefecture on Dec. 26. (Sayuri Ide)

The former head of an Osaka-based luxury watch-sharing service was arrested Dec. 26 on suspicion of fraud after being a fugitive abroad for nearly two years.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrested Takazumi Fukuhara, 44, the former representative of the now-defunct Neo Reverse, which operated the Toke Match sharing service.

Fukuhara, who also used the name Takazumi Kominato, had just returned to Japan from the United Arab Emirates.

According to investigative sources, Fukuhara left for Dubai in January 2024, the same month the service was terminated. Tokyo police obtained an arrest warrant and he was placed on the international wanted list. 

HOW THE SCAM WORKED

Toke Match was a service that offered to “connect users and owners” of luxury brand watches, such as Rolexes.

Owners would deposit their timepieces with the company to receive a monthly fee, and the company would rent the watches to other users.

The service began in January 2021, but cases of watches not being returned to their owners began to mount.

As of May 2024, police in 45 prefectures had taken complaints from approximately 650 people in their 20s to 80s, according to sources.

Of the roughly 1,700 watches covered in the reports, with a total market value of about 2.8 billion yen ($18 million), about 1,300 have been found to have been sold at 110 pawnshops and secondhand retailers nationwide.

Fukuhara reportedly used the large sums from the sales to purchase cryptocurrency and transfer funds to accounts related to online casinos.

In March 2024, the MPD obtained an arrest warrant for him on suspicion of professional embezzlement.

The National Police Agency also requested that the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO) issue an international wanted notice. The charge was later switched to fraud in September of that year.

On Dec. 26, police also arrested a former Neo Reverse employee, Taishi Nakayama, 44, of Osaka, for allegedly conspiring with Fukuhara.

The two are accused of defrauding a Tokyo man in his 30s of 15 luxury watches, worth about 18 million yen.

They allegedly posted false information on their website between August and December 2023, with claims such as, “Our sharing business allows you to rent luxury brand watches on a monthly basis” and “The deposit fee is paid every month, regardless of whether the watch is rented out.”

(This article was written by Arata Mitsui and Noriki Nishioka.)

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