is a retired yakuza

Yakuza

, also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...

 best known for his arrest in 2003, who was dubbed the "loan shark king". He has been introduced as a senior member of the Shizuoka

Shizuoka, Shizuoka

is the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, and the prefecture's second-largest city in terms of both population and area. It became one of Japan's 19 "designated cities" in 2005.-Geography:...

-based Goryo-kai, a secondary organization of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

's largest yakuza syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi

Yamaguchi-gumi

is Japan's largest and most infamous yakuza organization. It is named after its founder Harukichi Yamaguchi. Its origins can be traced back to a loose labor union for dockworkers in Kobe pre-WWII....

, although he was technically not a member of the Goryo-kai.

Career

He began his career as a yakuza after graduating from middle school, when he met the head of the Suzuki-gumi, an Inagawa

Inagawa-kai

The is the third largest of Japan's yakuza groups, with approximately 15,000 members. It is based in the Kanto region, and was one of the first yakuza organizations to begin operating overseas.-History:...

 affiliate, in jail. He joined the Suzuki-gumi and founded a yamikin

Sarakin

is a Japanese term for a legal moneylender who makes unsecured loans at high interest. It is a contraction of the Japanese words for salaryman and loan...

 organization in Shinjuku, Tokyo

Shinjuku, Tokyo

is one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative center, housing the busiest train station in the world and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration center for the government of Tokyo.As of 2008, the ward has an estimated population...

, launching his underground financial business.

He left the Suzuki-gumi in 1997 and along with his elementary school senior Yasuo Takagi, he joined the Shizuoka-based Mio-gumi, a tertiary organization of the Yamaguchi-gumi

Yamaguchi-gumi

is Japan's largest and most infamous yakuza organization. It is named after its founder Harukichi Yamaguchi. Its origins can be traced back to a loose labor union for dockworkers in Kobe pre-WWII....

.

Goryo-kai

In October 2002, following the retirement of the head of the Mio-gumi, Yasuo Takagi formed the Goryo-kai as the successor to the Mio-gumi. Kajiyama didn't join the Goryo-kai, retiring from the Yakuza world, but kept a strong connection with the Goryo-kai as the CEO of the Goryo-kai's underground finance ring.

Arrest

He was operating over 1,000 underground loaning companies as of August 2003, with estimated annual earnings of over $1 billion, and in August 2003 he was arrested for violating the investment law by "supervising moneylenders providing loans at unlawfully high interest rates". He had been convicted of 14 charges against him by 2005, and was sentenced to seven years in prison in February for money laundering

Money laundering

Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...

 involving the Standard Chartered Bank

Standard Chartered Bank

Standard Chartered PLC is a multinational financial services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom with operations in more than seventy countries...

 and Credit Suisse

Credit Suisse

The Credit Suisse Group AG is a Swiss multinational financial services company headquartered in Zurich, with more than 250 branches in Switzerland and operations in more than 50 countries.-History:...

.

Involvement in politics

In August 2003, Shizuka Kamei

Shizuka Kamei

is a Japanese politician.-Early life:He was born in the city of Shōbara in Hiroshima Prefecture into a poor family. He studied at the department of economics at University of Tokyo and worked his way through school through various jobs, including singing at a cabaret.Upon graduation in 1960, he...

, then a senior member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party

Liberal Democratic Party (Japan)

The , frequently abbreviated to LDP or , is a centre-right political party in Japan. It is one of the most consistently successful political parties in the democratic world. The LDP ruled almost continuously for nearly 54 years from its founding in 1955 until its defeat in the 2009 election...

 and former Senior Superintendent of the National Police Agency

National Police Agency (Japan)

The is an agency administered by the National Public Safety Commission of the Cabinet Office in the cabinet of Japan, and is the central coordinating agency of the Japanese police system....

, acknowledged receiving political donations from Kajiyama.