The president and CEO of Prudential Life Insurance, Hiroshige Tokumaru, held a press conference discussing a serious scandal where over 100 employees fraudulently obtained approximately 3.1 billion yen from around 500 customers. This incident raises significant concerns regarding the company's trustworthiness. Tokumaru emphasized that addressing victim compensation, uncovering the causes, and preventing future occurrences are top priority matters for the company. On the same day, Prudential announced the formation of a third-party committee, chaired by lawyer Shuji Iwamura, to ensure a thorough and objective investigation, which came as a shift from their initial reluctance to establish such an oversight group. The committee will be tasked with fact-finding, cause analysis, and devising measures to prevent similar fraud. The company is also changing its approach to customer compensation, deviating from the previous method where a compensation committee reviewed claims. Now, full compensation will be provided for cases arising during employees' tenure without prior review but will adhere to previous review processes for incidents occurring after employment termination. Since the announcement of the compensation committee's establishment on January 23, around 300 consultations regarding compensation claims have been reported, indicating that the full scope of the fraud is not yet clear. Additionally, Prudential has suspended new contract sales for 90 days to reassess its operations and reinforce its governance practices in light of this significant breach of trust.