[News] Music producer Komuro to be arrested for fraud

[shirin]

OSAKA —
Osaka prosecutors have decided to arrest well-known music producer Tetsuya Komuro on Tuesday on suspicion of defrauding a person out of 500 million yen by concluding a contract for the sale and transfer of copyrights he did not actually own, investigative sources said Monday. The 49-year-old Komuro is known for a large number of pop music hits since the 1990s but recently is said to have accumulated huge debts related to business and family matters.

He is suspected of pretending he owned the copyright to 806 tunes and concluding a 1 billion yen sales contract with the buyer in Hyogo Prefecture in August 2006, according to the sources. Komuro received 500 million yen as part of the contract that month, the sources said. Most of the 806 tunes were written by him but he was not authorized to transfer the copyright, the sources said.