The president of a construction company with an alleged link to a gang and nine employees were arrested Tuesday for pressuring tenants of a Tokyo office building to vacate their rooms at the request of its owner, police said.

Hiroshi Asaji, 59, president of the Osaka-based Koyo Jitsugyo, and nine employees stand accused of violating the Lawyers Law. Only qualified lawyers can negotiate with tenants to leave property on behalf of the owner. Those convicted of practicing law without a license could face up to two years in prison or a 3 million yen fine.

The owner of the building, Yokohama-based Suruga Corp., paid Koyo about 4 billion yen for forcing tenants to leave its properties in a bid to sell the land. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) investigators suspect that part of the money may have been funneled to a yakuza group.

Asaji and his accomplices negotiated with Belgian tourism authorities and other tenants of Shuwa Kioicho TBR Building in the Kojimachi district of Chiyoda-ku that Suruga owned over a one-year period from the autumn of 2005, and persuaded them to leave the building, the MPD alleges. After all the tenants left the building, Suruga pulled down the structure and sold the land to a real estate investment fund.

Investigators suspect that Koyo has a close link to a high-ranking member of the Takumi-gumi, which is affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate.

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