In a recent crackdown by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, three individuals, including 61-year-old Tomofumi Okamoto, chairman of the S.I.Net Association, were arrested on suspicion of violating the trust law through an illegal 'owner business' scheme. They supposedly encouraged individuals to invest in shared ownership of helicopters and other aircraft, collecting approximately 1 billion yen from about 270 investors across 25 prefectures between June 2022 and May 2024. The scheme offered investments disguised as selling ownership shares in helicopters, with claims of paying out monthly rents to investors, which raised major red flags regarding its legality.

The arrest stems from investigations that revealed the defendants engaged in activities without the necessary confirmation from the Prime Minister, suggesting deeper implications for regulatory compliance in investment practices. Between September 2022 and December 2023, they allegedly entered into a total of 770,000 yen in sales contracts with two individuals, promising monthly rent which has reportedly stopped since the issuance of a disposition order by the Consumer Affairs Agency in May 2024, which condemned their practices under the revised trust law that generally bans such investments unless specifically authorized.

The 'owner business' model draws significant scrutiny due to historical cases where investors never received their promised dividends or where the promised products did not exist, leading to substantial conflicts and consumer losses. The S.I.Net Association's approach involved heavily marketed promises over the phone, capitalizing on local government partnerships, and leveraging emergency response narratives to allure investors, indicating a sophisticated approach to solicitation that exploited regulatory gaps prior to the recent crackdown on such schemes.