Japanese town recovers 43 million yen in COVID money mistakenly sent to one man who gambled it away

Probably the most unexpected turnaround in an already long string of unexpected turnarounds.

It’s been a pretty wild ride since the town of Abu in Yamaguchi Prefecture accidentally sent 46.3 million yen (US$364,000) in COVID-19 relief money to a single resident, who also turned out to be the kind of guy who’d immediately blow it all on online casinos in a matter of weeks.

After a month of disappearances, lawsuits, surprise revelations, and finally an arrest for fraudulent use of a computer, the biggest shock came in the morning of 24 May, Abu mayor Norihiko Hanada held a press conference announcing that approximately 43 million yen ($338,000) of that money had already been recovered by the town.

At the time how this miraculous and completely unexpected recovery was accomplished wasn’t clear, but the amount that came back was equivalent to what the recipient, 24-year-old Sho Taguchi, had transferred among three different payment companies. Since online gambling is illegal in Japan, banks and credit cards won’t authorize transfers to foreign casinos, so he had to first put the money into a Japanese company that handles online payments and then send it overseas.

Source: https://soranews24.com/2022/05/30/japanese-town-recovers-43-million-yen-in-covid-money-mistakenly-sent-to-one-man-who-gambled-it-away/