The former president of a company who operated a luxury wristwatch rental service is wanted by Tokyo police on suspicion of embezzlement, after he allegedly sold without consent a Rolex entrusted to him for the service and fled Japan while failing to return many others.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has obtained an arrest warrant for 42-year-old Takazumi Fukuhara, who operated "Toke Match" watch-sharing service under the Osaka-based company Neo Reverse.
The service connected users who could rent luxury brand watches on a monthly basis with owners who could earn monthly income by entrusting their luxury brand watches, according to its website.
Fukuhara announced the dissolution of Neo Reverse and termination of its watch business in January, citing "various circumstances," on the company's website, and investigators said he left Japan for Dubai around the same time. The police plan to seek international extradition through the National Police Agency.
According to a group formed by 190 watch owners and other affected individuals, 866 watches with a combined worth of 1.84 billion yen ($12.3 million) have yet to be returned as of Wednesday.
At least 44 damage reports have been filed at 13 prefectural police departments across the country, with Tokyo police alone processing 27 of them as of Tuesday involving around 70 watches valued at roughly 100 million yen, investigative sources said.
Before its dissolution, a campaign on Toke Match had promised online gift vouchers to owners who lent their watches for the service. Police are also considering fraud charges in their investigation.
The arrest warrant alleges that Fukuhara in January sold a Rolex wristwatch, entrusted to him last December by a man from Tokyo, to a secondhand dealer in Osaka Prefecture for approximately 650,000 yen.
According to its website, Toke Match, which began its service in January 2021, had some 1,500 watches entrusted to it as of August 2023.
