日本にっぽん大学だいがく重量挙じゅうりょうあげ部ぶ 元もと監督かんとくを逮捕たいほ 特待とくたい生せい保護ほご者しゃから現金げんきん詐取さしゅか

A 63-year-old former coach of the Nihon University weightlifting club has been arrested on suspicion of fraud after showing false documents to the parents of a high school senior who had been accepted as a scholarship student with reduced or waived tuition, and swindling money from them under the pretense of tuition and other fees that were actually exempt.

The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating, suspecting that the former coach illegally received approximately 38 million yen from the parents of scholarship students over a period of ten years.

The person arrested is Kenji Nanba 63, former coach of the Nihon University weightlifting team, from Komae City, Tokyo.

According to investigators, in December 2022, the former coach is suspected of fraud for sending false admission guides and invoices to the parents of four high school seniors who were set to enroll in 2023 as scholarship students with waived entrance and tuition fees. He allegedly explained that “the waiver applies from the second year onward” and fraudulently obtained a total of 2.05 million yen under the pretense of collecting the first year’s tuition, which should have been exempt.

The former coach instructed the assistant coach to remove the payment slips with the official amounts from the admission information given to students, replace them with invoices showing inflated amounts, and send them to the parents.

While the money deposited into the clubs account was used for things like meal expenses during training camps, it is believed that some of it was also diverted for personal use, such as purchasing overseas brand-name goods and paying for coating fees for luxury cars owned by the individual.

The former coach was dismissed last July after it was revealed in a university investigation, prompted by complaints from team members and parents, that he had illicitly received funds from the parents of 58 scholarship students since the 2005 academic year.

The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating, believing that over the past ten years, the former coach illegally received a total of approximately 38 million yen from the parents of scholarship students.

Nihon University’s weightlifting club is known as a powerhouse among universities, having produced multiple representatives for the Olympic weightlifting competition.