TOKYO, April 5 (Kyodo) Two AUM Shinrikyo cultists were arrested Thursday on separate suspicion of fraud and falsification of documents, Tokyo police said.
Hisayoshi Aramaki is suspected of swindling the government out of about 720,000 yen in unemployment benefits, while Koji Kihara allegedly filed forged documents in connection with an AUM-run company, police said.
The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) searched seven locations in Tokyo including an AUM facility in Suginami Ward in connection with the allegations.
Aramaki, 37, allegedly filed an application with a public employment security office and obtained a 90-day unemployment allowance, despite the fact he earned income from software development from March to June last year.
Kihara, 46, is suspected of filing forged documents with local authorities in February 1999 when he reshuffled executives in the company.
Kihara registered his personal computer shop NetBank in Tokyo's Akihabara electronic goods district with local authorities in December 1999, but closed it a month later.
Aramaki, however, received unemployment allowance from the government, saying he was a NetBank employee who had been laid off.
The MPD suspects the pair may have thought about obtaining unemployment benefits in a systematic manner because more than 10 other people applied for a similar allowance, claiming they were fired by the firm.
Aramaki was part of the software development division of the doomsday cult, which now calls itself Aleph.
During the time he received the allowance, he is believed to have developed cellular phone equipment in products used by a major mobile operator for more than 10 million yen.
AUM orchestrated the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 12 people and sickened more than 5,000. Founder Shoko Asahara and other former senior members of the sect have either been on trial or have been given sentences, including death, for their part in the attack.
AP-NY-04-05-01 0042EDT
Copyright 2001 The Kyodo News Service.