The chief and his three associates galloped investors’ $1.4bn in pension fund money, from two retirement funds.
All the accused gave a false statement about the performance of the fund, claiming that the retirement assets had steadily risen in value when many investment funds were struggling to keep their heads above water.
The police seized the company’s headquarters located at Tokyo to collect more evidence on the scandal, so that concrete actions can be taken against the four.
Defending his action Asakawa told a parliamentary panel investigating the matter earlier this year, "I didn’t want to use inflated figures for the pensions fund, but (I did because) I did not want to come back with losses, no matter what."
The pension scandal has rocked the aspiration of ageing Japanese to get the private pension funds to help them through their retirement.
The revelations came after a massive loss cover-up scandal at camera and medical equipment maker Olympus last year, which badly damaged Japan’s corporate governance image.
The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission accused AIJ for losing at least 109.0 billion yen in an alleged fraud that reportedly affects more than 880,000 policy holders.
