Thai police arrest alleged Japanese stock market manipulator

BANGKOK – A Japanese lawyer whom police say altered his appearance through plastic surgery to escape arrest for an alleged stock share manipulation scheme more than a decade ago has been captured, Thai police said Friday.

Thailand’s Immigration Bureau announced that Yasuo Tsubaki, sought by Japanese authorities for securities fraud amounting to more than 12 billion yen ($116 million) from 2001-2005, was arrested when he sought to renew Thai visa on Wednesday. He fled to Thailand in 2007.

Displaying old and new photos of the 62-year-old Tsubaki, police alleged that after his escape, the fugitive had altered his appearance through plastic surgery, likening him to the characters in the 1997 movie “Face/Off.” He has been living in an apartment in a suburb of Bangkok.

Tsubaki and his alleged accomplices bought shares in the electric testing equipment company for which he worked, OHT Inc., to drive up their price, then sold them to make a profit, a scam popularly known as “pump and dump.”