Aomori woman returns luxury gifts from Chida to house corp

Japan Policy & Politics, August 19, 2002

AOMORI, Japan, Aug. 16 Kyodo

The Aomori Prefectural Housing Supply Public Corp. said Friday a woman in the prefecture has returned a luxury watch and two lighters she allegedly received from Yuji Chida, a former accountant at the corporation who is on trial on embezzlement charges.

Corporation officials said the woman, whose name was withheld, mailed the Cartier watch, worth about 2.65 million yen, and Du Pont and Dunhill lighters to the corporation Thursday.

The woman, who is said to have been given an unspecified amount of cash from Chida, included a letter in the package, in which she said, ''I regret what I have done. But this is the only thing I could return,'' according to the officials.

While the corporation sent letters to five men and women in mid-July asking them to return money and gifts they allegedly received from Chida, this is the first time that one of them has returned items to the corporation, they said. They added that one of the five called the corporation saying nothing can be returned.

The total amount of cash and luxury goods Chida is believed to have given to the five is said to have reached some 60 million yen, they said.

Chida allegedly embezzled 1.46 billion yen from 1994 to 2001 and sent at least 810 million yen of the total to his 29-year-old Chilean wife, Anita Alvarado.

The corporation has recently filed a criminal charge in Chile against Alvarado, widely known as the Chilean ''geisha,'' in a bid to reclaim embezzled money Chida reportedly sent to her from Japan.