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Japanese Mobster Jumps Transplant List
Tadamasa Goto, the rumored “Godfather” of the Yakuza, Japan’s 85,000-member mafia, jumped to the top of a liver transplant list at UCLA Medical Center under suspicious circumstances, reports CBS’s 60 Minutes. Despite Goto’s billion-dollar fortune, money could not buy him a new liver in Japan, where organ donations are taboo. The chief of immigration and customs at Tokyo’s U.S. Embassy says the “John Gotti of Japan,” as the richest and most violent mobster is known by U.S. law enforcement, should not have been allowed into the country, based on both his extensive criminal history and membership in a criminal organization. An expert writer and investigator on the Yakuza says Goto made a deal with the FBI, offering to inform on fellow Yakuza members in exchange for a special visa. Though the average waiting time for a liver in California is three years, Goto got one in just six weeks, despite the fact that he was reportedly No. 80 on the hospital’s waiting list. Three of his Yakuza associates also got liver transplants, costing them about $400,000 dollars each, all paid for in cash, CBS reports. Goto and another Yakuza reportedly each gave $100,000 to the UCLA transplant center, despite rules requiring extensive background checks on every patient.
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Why are all the "blue" states so rife with corruption?
I'm surprised that even the university hospital system and the liver donation process is corrupt in California.
That's right Plant, let's all get worked up over this latest little corruption, and paint it blue.
I wish I could feel outraged over this story, but I just don't see the material difference in a Yakuza crime boss paying a little under the table for preferential treatment, and Goldman Sachs and boys paying a little here and there, a little more to this senator or that one, for their favors.
Meanwhile, we look to our "leaders" to prosecute, but oops, there are no leaders, just blowhards with money stuffed up their rear-ends.
This happened under George W. Bush's watch, so it was his FBI who put this thing together. Nice try, Planted Agent. You can do better than that.
I'm fairly new at posting comments, but it seems to me that Plantagenet is the fisrt to commetn on any article? WTF! How many times does he/she hit the refresh button to be the first to post?
With all that time on your hands, maybe you should do a little a research before posting.
This story is OLD news.
On the bright side, alcoholics are also usually denied liver transplants. But that didn't stop Mickey Mantle from jumping to the top of the list.
Yeah, 3 times!
Well money still buys life and what a good way to show it. This is such a good example for our children.
Personally if you are gonna take a bribe then make the bastard pay 1 billion dollars for the liver, that would have been 3 billion dollars UCLA missed out on. Stupid assholes
Sandra, these guys don't slide their money to the legitimate organizations, they slip it into the pockets of individuals. Just like our Senate and House. UCLA would never benefit, but the regents, and administrators might.
And I always thought liver, was the cheapest cut of meat.
How stupid was the FBI not to get the information up front? And you're telling me they couldn't stop him from leaving the country? Now the Japanese are really going to despise American workmanship.
Maybe they gave him a pig's liver.
Cash, is king as it should be. California at its best..... im shocked they don't like capitalize there do they? at least that's what all the limo loving libs say.
One more argument for back-to-basics education. If you'd ever diagrammed a sentence in grammar school, you would know that you are making no sense.
your are right but, why the hell do you care?
Because, this being a forum of communication, you don't communicate very well.
It beat me why me dedn't gets me bettur marke in englesh?
Girls, girls, please.
This is not a comment on the gangsters. They are expected to act like gangsters. The real criminal is UCLA which sacrificed innocent people for money.
No, the real issue is the FBI, who probably arranged for the transplant as well as letting him into the country. I don't for a second believe their denials. Why those chuckleheads would trust a gangster is another question. Nice to know our national security is in good hands.
Thank you.
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