Pana Wave facing tax probe after police raids

Yomiuri Shimbun/August 13, 2003

The Metropolitan Police Department has asked the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau to investigate suspicions the Pana Wave Laboratory group failed to report income, it was learned Monday.

Police suspect the group failed to report about 2.48 billion yen in income to authorities. Most of the money was donations made by members of the group to Nihon Shoho Kiu Kyokai, a Pana Wave affiliate based in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo.

In May, officials from the MPD's public safety bureau searched several locations in connection with allegations that some of the group's vehicles were registered under false names.

They seized bankbooks, account ledgers and other documents.

The officials discovered that 2.48 billion yen had been paid into four bank accounts opened in the name of Nihon Shoho Kiu Kyokai between September 1993 and May this year.

Most of the money came from individual Pana Wave members, and one man had donated about 100 million yen, police said.

The money was used to pay for the construction of Pana Wave facilities and to cover the travel expenses of the group's convoy.

Police said the four bank accounts contained about 45 million yen when the bankbooks were seized.