New York (HedgeCo.Net) AIJ President Kazuhiko Asakawa, 60, was arrested on suspicion of defrauding two corporate pension funds by presenting false investment performance records last year.
This comes after a March raid of AIJ’s headquarters as well as 20 other locations linked to the suspects. The raids came after company officials told the local Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission that AIJ couldn’t account for most of the pension money it managed.
The investigation is still ongoing, but AIJ is believed to be hiding the loss of $89 million last year, and an estimated $1.3 billion over the last ten years.
Bloomberg reports that global hedge funds are receiving more allocations of Japanese assets as a way for Japanese investors to diversify their alternative asset portfolios. Bloomberg’s research shows that Neuberger Berman Group LLC is winning new mandates to the $4 billion it has gathered in Japan since 2004. Winton Capital Management Ltd., with about $3 billion from Japanese investors, is seeing steady inflows, while Financial Risk Management Ltd. is starting a new fund to meet growing interest.
Second largest in the world, the Japanese pension system oversees $3.36 trillion.
Alex Akesson
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