A Japanese man who was mistakenly sent ￥46.3 million (US$358,000) in COVID-19 relief funds has said that he gambled away the entire amount in two weeks.
The 24-year-old, who has not been named, was sent the money last month as part of a local government program to help residents who were struggling financially as a result of the pandemic.
However, rather than sending him the correct amount — ￥100,000 — the town government of Abu wired money intended for all 463 low-income households to his bank account, Japanese media reported.
After local officials realized their blunder, they filed a lawsuit on Thursday last week seeking the immediate return of the money plus legal costs, but were apparently unable to contact the recipient.
The man, who reportedly lived alone and recently quit his job working in a shop, agreed to return the cash, but then said, without explanation, that it had “been moved” from his account.
Records showed he withdrew all of the money from his bank account from April 8 to 21.
This week, his lawyer said he had gambled the entire sum on online casino sites using his mobile phone, adding that it would be “difficult” for his client to return the money because he does not have any assets.
Abu Mayor Norihiko Hamada described the man’s actions as “unforgivable” and said the town would do its utmost to recover the money.
The man’s lawyer said that the parties involved were attempting to resolve the dispute, but legal experts said the town was unlikely to recoup its losses.
“Even if the town wins its suit and seeks to seize assets, if the man doesn’t have any, it will be hard to recover the money,” Hisashi Sonoda, a professor emeritus of criminal law at Konan University in Kobe, told the Mainichi Shimbun.
Sonoda said the man’s actions had been “morally questionable,” but added that a criminal prosecution could be problematic given that people’s right to withdraw money from their accounts is recognized by Japan’s civil code.
Reports said that ￥100,000 had since been sent to each of the households that missed out on the original payments.
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
It turns out that looming collision between our Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies might not happen after all. Astronomers on Monday said that the probability of the two spiral galaxies colliding is less than previously thought, with a 50-50 chance within the next 10 billion years. That is essentially a coin flip, but still better odds than previous estimates and farther out in time. “As it stands, proclamations of the impending demise of our galaxy seem greatly exaggerated,” the Finnish-led team wrote in a study appearing in Nature Astronomy. While good news for the Milky Way galaxy, the latest forecast might be moot
RSS