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Man Accidentally Got $357K in COVID Relief Funds, Then Gambled It Away

A 24-year-old man got the cash meant for hundreds of low-income households. His whereabouts are now “unknown.”

Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of COVID relief funds meant for residents in Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture have been gambled away by a 24-year-old man who received the money by mistake, according to local reports. Low-income households in the town of Abu were meant to receive a total of 46.3m yen (about $357,000), to be distributed among 463 people. But the funds were mistakenly wired to the wrong account on April 8, and the recipient has reportedly since gambled away all the money and vanished. Local authorities filed a lawsuit against him on May 12 seeking to recuperate the funds, and though his lawyer said he would cooperate, his whereabouts are currently unknown. He was quoted in local media saying he would “pay” for his crime, but that the money “can’t be returned.” Mayor Norihiko Hanada has said he is “deeply sorry” for the funds winding up in the wrong account, and vowed officials would “do our utmost to take back the large amount of public money.”