Falsified documents submitted to 11 Bank Branches

A report by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper on May 5, has alleged that that mortgage fraud scandal now extends to 11 Suruga Bank branches across Japan. The newspaper alleges that five companies are involved in obtaining loans from various Suruga branches that were based on falsified income statements, resulting in over-loans to borrowers. The Suruga branches that have discovered faked documents include Tokyo, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Midtown, Futako-Tamagawa, Kawasaki, Omiya, Tama Plaza, Sendai and Kyoto.

On May 7 the newspaper dropped another bombshell, reporting that the lawyers representing a group of investors had received an audio recording of a phone call that took place in April 2016 between a real estate agent and an alleged bank employee. In the recording, which was released to the public, the broker asked the bank staffer for advice on what to do if a sales agency was unable to tamper with the loan application documents. The bank staffer mentioned a company that takes on a lot of those requests. The broker then called the company in question and they confirmed that they could falsify documents. Suruga's share price briefly dropped by as much as 11% the following morning before recovering.