By Aaron McDade
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Two men pleaded guilty on January 6, 2022, in Las Vegas to wire fraud charges for their roles in a $1.5 billion Ponzi scheme that had as many as 10,000 victims across the globe that prosecutors have compared to some of the biggest financial fraud schemes in U.S. history.
Junzo Suzuki and his son, Paul Suzuki, pleaded guilty to their involvement with MRI International Inc., a Las Vegas-based company that from 2009 to 2013 told thousands of Japanese investors they were purchasing claims from a medical collection business, according to The Associated Press.
However, in April 2013, when the Japanese government revoked MRI's license to market securities, prosecutors say the company owed over $1.5 billion to investors.
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Both men pleaded guilty to one count each of wire fraud, and they now face five years each in prison followed by three years of supervised release, a deal they made rather than beginning a trial next month for 15 federal fraud charges.
The father and son were arrested in Japan in January 2019, months after a separate Las Vegas jury convicted their co-defendant Edwin Fujinaga on 20 counts of mail fraud, money laundering and wire fraud, for which the 75-year-old is currently serving a 50-year sentence.
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The father and son remain free under federal supervision pending sentencing May 11.
Attorneys Richard Wright and Junji Suzuki, representing the defendants, did not immediately respond Thursday to requests for comment on behalf of their clients. Junji Suzuki is not related to the defendants.
Junzo Suzuki was 70 when he was arrested. Paul Suzuki was 40.
Fujinaga ran the Las Vegas operation. He was found guilty of using new investors' money to pay off previous investors and spending the rest on himself, including a Las Vegas golf course mansion, a private jet, luxury cars and real estate in California wine country, Beverly Hills and Hawaii.
Junzo Suzuki was MRI International's executive vice president, prosecutors said, and Paul Suzuki managed Tokyo operations.
U.S. attorneys had compared the case with the Ponzi scheme convictions of Bernard Madoff in 2009 in New York, Allen Stanford in Houston in 2012, and Scott Rothstein's in 2010 in Miami.
Madoff, now 82, was sentenced to 150 years in prison for bilking thousands of investors out of at least $20 billion. Stanford, 71, is serving 110 years for a scheme involving more than $7 billion. Rothstein, 59, is serving 50 years in a $1.2 billion case.
The U.S. Department of Justice has offered a website to provide information to victims of the MRI International scheme.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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