Tokyo tax authorities uncovered a China-based scheme that invested about 27 billion yen ($237 million) in Japanese real estate using cryptocurrency to avoid the watchful eye of the Chinese government, sources said.
Officials of the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau conducted a tax audit of a company in the capital’s Taito Ward that operated a photo studio aimed at foreign tourists.
The company had annual sales of only about 10 million yen, but tax officials discovered huge amounts of cash going in and out of the company’s accounts, the sources said.
One of the accounts was with an exchange that converted cryptocurrency into yen.