Aum Shin Rikyo cult member-Amway distributor arrested for embezzlement

[January 26, 1999]


Aum Shin Rikyo cult follower Tomoyo Kobayashi was arrested in early January of 1999 on suspicion of embezzlement. Kobayashi, a 35-year-old door-to-door saleswoman for the U.S. direct-marketing company Amway, is suspected of pocketing 1.86 million yen from Amway's Japan arm between May 1996 and last September, police said.

Armed with a warrant issued in connection with Kobayashi's arrest, Tokyo police again searched a facility of the Aum Shin Rikyo cult in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture on January 25, 1999. The Aum facility, which police believe serves as the new headquarters of the cult, was initially searched on January 11, 1999, when police confiscated a hard disk of a desktop computer. Because the disk cannot now be located, a second search was undertaken.

Source: Kyodo News Service, January 25, 1999