It was reported on 17 June that Yoshiyuki Ikutani of Tokyo had been arrested on suspicion of the embezzlement of his former employers, Microsoft Japan. Luckily he was easy to find having already been charged with the embezzlement of his former employers over at a now-defunct subsidiary of IBM.

The now 48-year-old Ikutani had been working at IBM Business Consulting Services during a period from April 2008 to April 2009. According to police, during this time he had charged clients a consultancy fee but rather than have it sent to the company he delivered it to his own private account.

It is suspected that he had embezzled 300 million yen (US$3M) since 2005 , but the charges stand at the approximately 130 million yen (US$1.3) from 12 transfers over the one year period.

Allegedly, when the company asked about the missing funds, Ikutani hired actors from a talent agent to pretend to be reps from clients giving formal apologies saying things such as, “I’m deeply sorry about the slow payment”.

IBM Business Consulting Services was eventually dissolved and merged with IBM Japan. By this time Ikutani had moved on to a position at Microsoft Japan, and IBM Japan begun an internal audit.

As IBM Japan was beginning to learn of Ikutani’s alleged creative bookkeeping he was, according to police, already draining money from Microsoft Japan to the tune of 15 million yen (US$157,000).

When requested by the company to hire a consulting firm he would use a fake company he had set and transfer the payment to his own account while forging the imaginary president’s signature.

After an internal investigation the company fired Ikutani in September 2011, and worked on filing charges leading to his arrest now. However, he had already been arrested on charges of embezzlement from his time at IBM after charges were filed late last year.

It was reported that Ikutani had used the money he embezzled for private investments such as foreign currencies.

Source: MSN News 1, 2 via My Game News Flash (Japanese)